dear family,
whoa, dad is retired! that is crazy. but, at the same time, really awesome. now you can go after all those other dreams like getting your pilots licence or the new corvette... good work though dad, i'm proud of you. you've always been such a good example for me.
so this week was pretty exciting. i'm companions with elder watkins again! it's pretty fun. usually when you get a new companion it's kinda awkward for awhile before you get used to each other, but when elder watkins got in on monday, we just picked right up where we left off without a hitch. i love elder watkins, he's a stud. anywho, we had zone conference this last week. it was president clark's first, so nobody really knew what to expect. it was phenomenal! his training was amazing and it was exactly what everybody needed to hear. the mission has been doing really well lately, but after president's training, things will explode for sure.
one of the fun things about being out for this long is you get to know a lot of people really well. i've now been companions with both of the current assistants, so i get to talk to them a lot about all kinds of things. one of the coolest things that i learned from talking with them over this last zone conference is that there are going to be two new cities opened up to missionaries here in east malaysia! there has been whispers of a place called Sri Aman opening up since i've been in the mission, and it's finally happening! that's so exciting! i would kill someone for the chance to open up an area like that. there is also another city called Muka that will be opening very soon. wonderful things are happening.
so i'm not sure, but there is a slight possibility that i might be extending a month. nothing is for sure yet, and i probably won't find out for a few more months, but just so you are aware. hopefully that won't mess up any travel plans or anything.
well lets see... mom asked me for some specifics on how the work is going here. when i was getting ready to leave, i had the impression in my mind that my mission would be more of a service mission and not very much teaching. that's what i had heard, and what with malaysia being a muslim country, it made sense. but my mission has turned out to be completely different from what i thought it would be. our mission right now only has about 80 missionaries, but we had more than 1000 baptisms last year as a mission. the work is EXPLODING here! it's such an adventure, because we're on the last frontier of the church.
there are tons of people being baptized, but the big problem we run into here is leadership- there just isn't enough experienced melchezedek priesthood holders to fill all of the leadership positions. anywho, i don't really think that was what mom was looking for, but i've grown a lot too. i don't think i've changed at all, just grown a lot (unfortunately, mostly my girth). i don't really know what you want me to say though... probably the biggest difference is that i used to just think that i knew, but now i know that i know.
the shoes fit great! they gave me some wicked blisters the first couple times that i wore them, but now they're really nice. i've still got some twinkies left, but all of the ding dongs are gone. i'm not going to lie, i finished most of the stuff pretty fast.
so do you know when andrew gets home? he's been on his mission for more that two years! oh man, what happened?anywho, i think that's it. i hope you all have a wonderful week!
love,
elder troxel
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