Take Luck!

dear family,

the emails were really good this week, thank you. michaels was so funny. oh man, it's true, it is almost time that i need to be thinking about applications and things! i actually have thought a little bit about what i want to do with the rest of my life, but i'm not really sure. and i was thinking of going somewhere else other than BYU, but with 50% off tuition, i think that makes the decision for me. i really have no idea what i want to do anymore, but when i get to only 6 months left, i'll start making it more of a matter of prayer.

so i think i'm almost over whatever bug i had. it didn't keep me in at all, but it wasn't very much fun. i still wake up not feeling so well, but my cough is gone and i feel a lot better... except for the fact that i didn't do any exercise (running, push ups, sit-ups, you know) in the mornings or evenings for an entire week, so i am feeling pretty chubby. i'm back up to almost 190, and it's not muscle. that's a bummer that TJ's sick too. tell him to stop it.

so what're all of your plans for the 4th? i guess by the time you write back, it will have already happened... so what did you do for the 4th? we're planning another barbeque. it should be really good because we've got 2 elders in our zone who are pandai masak (rough translation: really good at cooking); one is from alabama, so he makes good pies and southern food and stuff, and the other is a sri lankan (from australia) and i've never had better indian food than his. so we'll have a malaysian 4th of july with a little bit of an indian twist. i freaking love curry.

so president skelton is officially released from his calling today, and president clark is the new mission president. today also marks 2009 being half way over! lots of crazy things are happening. there's been a lot of rumors flying around about what is going to happen in august when a huge group of elders goes home, including 4 zone leaders and an assistant, but we'll just have to wait and see. i'm sure president clark will change a lot of things.

this last week was pretty good. we had a baptism for a really awesome couple whose names are Anthoney and Emalice. they are so good. they LOVE to feed us. but their baptism was great and Emalice bore a really sincere testimony. things like that make all the getting drenched in the rain, sweat, dogs, and having to deal with drunk ibans, and ridiculous missionaries, all worth it.

we're having our fifth straight week with a baptism this week. it would be cool if we could keep it going the whole time i'm here, but that is very unimportant. the important thing is that each one of these numbers is actually a life that is changed. it would kill me to find out that any of these people some day down the road goes inactive. we just have to prepare them well for the promise they make. our teaching pool took a bit of a punch in the face last week, but i'm sure that the Lord will place more people in our path who are ready. He always does.

so any news on the shoes yet? i can probably go a couple more months on these ones, but not much longer than that.

tell chelsie not to worry, i wasn't worried... just a bit concerned ;) main-main sahaja (just kidding). but thanks for passing on that message mom.

i'm still plugging along, slowly but surely. take care ya'll.

love,
elder troxel