Jordan's Mission Apartments


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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Surprise!

dear family,

don't worry, i'm not being apostate. since myldsmail was down for the last two days, we get to come read our emails today. i sent you an email on wednesday, so this one won't be very long...

i can't believe whitney graduates today! oh man. but don't worry sis, things after high school are SO much better and more fun. trust me. even though old friends and other people might move on, you'll meet a ton of new people. i'm proud of you girl! keep a stiff upper lip and don't be afraid. you've got a lot of big decisions ahead of you, but don't worry about anything. just make everything you do a matter of prayer. remember what it says in D&C 6:36 (and also on my missionary plaque), "look unto me in every thought. doubt not, fear not." you have got so much potential whitney! oh, the places you'll go! you're awesome. have a wonderful graduation and pardy hardy!

anywho, you had some questions that i would love to answer:

1. (Do you get reimbursed for all the money you spend?) not yet... but i'm really hoping that will happen soon. the new office couple is a little bit slow at getting things done, because they're still trying to get their feet under them. i think it will be this week though.

2. (You mentioned that you thought your companion will be an assistant soon. Has that happened yet?) once again, not yet. he won't go there until june 15 (but i'm not supposed to know that). i'm excited to know who my new companion will be. this summer will be nuts because there is a ton of leadership going home, and i'll then be one of the oldest zone leaders. it'll be fun to see what happens.

3. (How are things going with your zone? Are they catching the vision of what is truly possible?) things with the zone are ok. we came up with a sweet thing called the "July Jihad." a jihad is a religious war, or a crusade. we talked with our district leaders, and had them set district standards or goals for the next six weeks, leading up to july. if we accomplish all of the short term goals that we set, july will have an explosion of baptisms. the highest amount that this zone has had in one month for this year is 15. that's ok... not particularly good... but the goal is to at the very least double that number. we've only got 5 companionship's, so everyone is going to have to work really hard. but i'm excited for it.

so, everything is still going really well here. i hope everyone is still doing well. take pictures of whitney's graduation for me. i want to see her.

i love you all.
elder troxel

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Hey, Hey, Hey

Dear Blog followers,

We are sorry about the delay in Jordan's email, but we did not realize that he sent this to a different account. We knew he was having trouble with his ldsmail account as it looked like he hadn't open any of his emails. We found his email today and feel much better that he is safe and sound.

Mom and Dad Troxel

dear family,

i'm writing this on gmail right now because myldsmail is down (what are the odds?). anywho, i haven't gotten to read your emails yet, but i'll keep trying to get on to myldsmail. but i hope everything is going well. i've had an excellent week. oh yeah, before i forget again, i need to ask you something... i've heard that the shoe brand "Ecco" has two year warranties on all of their shoes. do you think you could check on that for me? because my eccos are pretty shot. both soles are split right in half and their pretty torn up from the bikes, but if the rumors are true, then they should just be able to send a brand new pair. i've heard of missionaries doing that before, and i'm not sure if either pair of my shoes are going to last much more that 3 more months, so if you could check on that i would be very grateful.

this week has been a good one, at least for elder tuckfield and i. we were able to come out of zone conference and do some really good work the rest of the week. i wasn't very pleased with some of the other companionship's in the zone, however. elder tuckfield and i have talked about it though and we've got some good ideas on how to try and motivate the zone and get things going again though. we've got some elders who are getting really close to going home, and they've all but stopped doing missionary work all together. if nothing else though, it's a good example for me of what not to do when i get to that point...

i told you when i talked to you on the phone about how i struggle staying focused in my language study, but i've found something that has snapped me back into focus... i'm learning Jawi! jawi is the traditional written language of malay. it's not used very much, but it's way cool looking because it uses a lot of the arabic alphabet. so the last few days i've spent learning how to read and write the jawi alphabet. i'm planning on writing a letter to chelsie today, and i'll write some jawi words in there so that you can see what it looks like. it's awesome. i'm super pumped about it.

so we've got some really excellent investigators right now. we'll be having a baptism for a lady named Catherine this saturday. she's married and pregnant with her second child. she's 17 years old! ibans are crazy! i don't know if i ever told you, but i baptized an iban sister in sibu who was married when she was 12 and had her first child at 13! that is just gross. but that's what they're all about here. anywho, catherine is really good. she's been taught for along time, but is just now getting baptized. she's got a really good testimony though and she's going to be a good member. we were supposed to have a baptism for another guy named lawrence this week, but he's had trouble stopping smoking, so we've had to push him back a bit. we met with him yesterday and had him write down all the reasons that make him want to smoke. then we had him write down what he needs to do to avoid all of those things. i think it really helped him to see that is possible. the most important thing that we stressed with him was about prayer. he's been smoking for 8 years, and he's only 20. how crazy is that? when i was 12, i don't think i'd ever even seen someone smoking! geez.

anywho, our area is doing great, and the weeks keep flying by. it's a good thing, because i still can't get into myldsmail and it's looking like i'll have to wait a week to read the emails. andrew is probably coming close to having single digits in weeks left! and whoa, whitney is all but graduated! let me know how college is, sis.

anywho, i'm still healthy and happy. everything is great. i hope everyone is good back home. i love you all.

-elder troxel

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Packages Arrive!!

dear family,

whoa, so whitney is graduating from seminary is she? did i ever graduate from seminary? i don't remember it ever happening. i hope so. so whitney is coming up on her last week in high school, right? i'm with you mom, when did i get so old? good work though whitney.

so this week has been really busy with zone stuff. today and tomorrow are zone conference, and tonight we're having a mondo-Barbecue. it's going to be awesome, but it's been a pain in the bum to put together. mostly the pain in my bum is coming from ripping so much money out of my wallet to pay for things i think. it'll be awesome though.

so guess what! all of the packages arrived! i got the deodorant package last friday. then i got a call from someone in singapore that my package arrived there... THEN i got a call from KK saying that my easter package finally arrived there! i'll be lucky if that one ever reaches me, but it's good to know that it's feeding missionaries and that it arrived! so i think we're still at 100%. thank you very much for the deodorant and the beef jerky. it was delicious. the beef jerky... not the deodorant.

you said that whitney made a dress! apa hal-bah? since when could she make sweet stuff like that?! that's awesome! i want some pictures. i've recently learned how to make a hammock, and i'm three rows into 60 rows of an awesome king sized hammock. it'll be so sweet when i finish.

so, kind of funny story. we were teaching a family last night, and after we finished the lesson, we were just drinking some Milo with them and chatting it up, trying to get to know them better. anywho, somehow we got on the topic of who was going to get married first. they picked me, because they said that i was more handsome. haha, people here are so ruthlessly honest. if you're fat, they'll just come straight out and ask you why you are/how did you become so fat. so if i'm like that when i get home, forgive me, it's just my culture. they said that i wasn't sentimental though. apa hal? i'm sentimental, right?

anywho, i don't really have anymore updates. the work is awesome as always. the zone is doing well. thanks again for the packages. you're all awesome. i love you all.

love,
elder troxel

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Selamat Hari Ibu! (Safe/Happy Mother's Day!)

dear family,

i don't really have all that much to say, because we just talked a couple of days ago... but i'm still truckin. it was awesome to get to talk to you all. everybody sounds like they're doing great. everybody sounded pretty much the same. did i sound the same? it was fun.

so i just got an email from Owey! apparently he's playing ball up at the U! oh man, that's awesome. that really makes me want to play again. but he sounds like he's doing well. i can't believe he's been home for 4 months! geez. anywho, the week thus far has been really good. we've set a few more baptism dates, and had some really good appointments. we're really busy these days, and it's getting to the point where we're having to go on splits to see everybody who wants to learn, which is a very good thing. thank you for your prayers and support. um, i haven't checked the mail since i talked to you, so i don't know if i've gotten the package yet or not. i should probably do that soon.

we've got zone conference coming up next week, so we're really busy trying to get that ready. it's a lot bigger here than in KK, so there's more to do. i'm way excited though, because we're playing football for our activity! i love that game. we're also going to be having a big barbecue which is going to be awesome, but it's pretty time consuming to get everything together for it.

oh, about those pictures... i don't think i even had pictures 203-242 on that disk. i made the CD, and then i continued to take pictures with that card, so i made DVD with all of the pictures on that card before i deleted it. i've got backup CDs of all my pictures that i keep, along with sending them to you, so hopefully somewhere i've still got all of the pictures. it'll be fun for dad to come and see all of that stuff in person.

anywho, i don't have much more to say... i'll tell you my awesome almost pooping pants story some other time. maybe in february.

love,
elder troxel

Mother's Day Conversation

We are happy to report that we were able to talk to Jordan on Mother's Day. The exciting thing was we were able to use Skype and it was a free call. The senior couple in the area, had Skype on their computer and let Jordan use it. It allowed us to see Jordan, but since he was not suppose to use the video chat he could not see us. So, for us, it was the best of both worlds. Both grand parents were on the phone and could listen to the call. We are happy to report that Jordan is doing well in all aspects. He is happy and healthy. We do miss him!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Happy 15 Month Mark!!

dear family,

i'm a bit disappointed with the email this week, i must admit... only because you didn't tell me what's white and red and golden brown all over!!! come on, what is it? now i'm going to be thinking about that all week. what could possibly fit that description? a toasted marshmallow with strawberry sauce? a candy cane that has been accidentally dropped in the toilet? i don't know... michael's wedding colors???!!! if you could let me know next week, i'd much appreciate it.

anywho, i really did quite enjoy the email actually. it's crazy that you told me that Mark Erckebrack got baptized! i was actually thinking about that this week! i figured he would eventually, he's a good guy. and let me know if you hear from jackson.

this week was pretty good. elder tuckfield had to go to singapore on monday to be interviewed for a work permit there. it was kind of a surprise to me, but i guess he knew that he was getting one already. they don't get you a work permit unless you're going to be in singapore for an extended amount of time, and seeing as he was just transferred from singapore a couple of months ago, all evidence points towards him becoming assistant pretty soon. that's all just speculation though, but it's pretty obvious that is what's going to happen, it's just a matter of when. anywho, he left on monday morning, and that left me here alone, so i went out with elder young. it was really fun. the youngs are one of my favorite senior couples... and i didn't even have to ride a bike because he has a car! we went to a few appointments, and ran some errands that i needed to do, and even had a stop a pizza hut. oh man, it was delicious. elder tuckfield got back yesterday though, so it's back to business.

you asked about elder tuckfield though, so here is his bio:

Elder Bradford Tuckfield is from Austin Texas. He's about 6'3" and probably 215 or 220. he'd of been one heck of a defensive end, but not very coordinated the poor fellow. what he lacks in physical stamina he makes up for in brains and just all around awesomeness. he and i get along really well, so i'm pretty bummed that this is going to be another uber-short companionship. our personalities are pretty much the same; we both like to laugh about movies and talk about crazy deep doctrinal questions. he's big into broadway plays and so we get a kick out of singing showtunes and what not. his malay is uber good and mine is getting there. but yeah, i can't really think of anything else that you'd like to know about him... he snores like a mad man! i try to keep him up at night with as much pointless conversation as possible so that i can fall asleep before him because if i don't, it's always a long night. he's a stud though, and we're tearing it up here.

in reporting on monday, i talked with the elders mostly about setting baptism dates, because the number of people that are on date for baptism here is uber low, and a most of the elders here haven't set one with anybody for a couple of weeks. oh man, it's been crazy! i don't know what happened, but it's like a switch just flipped! everyone has set more, and some companionship's have doubled the number of investigators they have on date for baptism! i was so excited! and it's only wednesday! it looks and feels like things are starting to turn around, and everybody is getting a lot more excited. it's just fun to be a part of it.

so the work is going really well. we'll (elder tuckfield and I) will have our first baptism this friday. there will be two baptisms, one for a girl named Anastasia and also for a guy named Edwin. both are incredible and will be excellent members.

wait a minute... what was whitney doing downstairs ALONE with Taylor?! and who is this Taylor? i don't like him. Whitney, you're too young for that. that's something that i would do! well, not now of course, but before. ok, i'm putting my foot down. whitney is not allowed to date anyone until i get home and can give him my stamp of approval. sorry sis, but it has to be done. ;)

so i guess the call for next week is all worked out already. 9:30 in the morning here. this will be the 3rd time! can you believe that?! that means that the next call will just be to tell you things like what i want my first meal home to be, or what the first movie i want to watch is! (it's batman by the way, i already know). that means that i can call myself an old missionary after this call :)well, i think that's pretty much everything. i hope everyone is healthy and strong. keep reading your scriptures every day. don't get lazy. after all, it is a commandment. i love you all.

love,
Elder Jordan Troxel

Mission Field Pictures