Bat Guano

Dear family,

right now i'm sitting in an internet cafe. i'm super sweaty, i stink to high heaven, and i'm covered in dirt and bat guano from head to toe. why? because i just had the sweetest p-day of my mission, that's why. i'll tell you all about it a bit later in the email. first things first.

i received a phone call from elder Gulbrandsen on sunday night. he, if you remember, is serving as the assistant in singapore. he said to me, "there are benefits to being in the expat ward" (basically the ward for foreign workers in singapore). he then told me some of the most amazing news i've heard in a long time. that the Cougs upset #3 Oklahoma 14-13! i won't lie, i was pretty trunky for a few minutes there. i called Elder Budge (the senior missionary in our branch) and had him print me out the article so i could read it on p-day. it sounded like quite the game.

there were a few amazing things that happened on sunday, football being only the second incredible. we've been working with a big family for about a month now (i think i told you about them last week), and this last week was their do or die week. elder watkins and i put a lot of prayer and preparation into the three lessons we had with them. anywho, it all came down to saturday night. up till that point, they'd still been a bit wishy washy on whether or not they were actually going to come to church or not. we brought our branch president along and he did wonders! the wife and kids had committed already to be baptized, but it wasn't a very solid commitment if we didn't have the dad. after talking with President Mambang, he committed to be baptized along with the rest of his family and they all came to church on sunday! it was great.

so on to today. for the last few weeks, elder watkins and i have been planning out a zone activity. it's nearly impossible to do, because our zone is in two different cities that are about 3 hours apart. however, there are some caves right in between the two called Niah Caves, and they are rumored to be some of the biggest caves in the world. president skelton wouldn't let missionaries go there, but we got president clark to approve them. we got everything worked out with transport, and all the missionaries met at the caves at about 9:00 this morning. the walk from the parking lot to the caves is probably about 3 miles, but it's on a really cool board walk through the jungle, so it's not a very grueling walk. when we finally came around the corner and saw the entrance to the caves, i could not believe how ginormous it was. i've never seen anything like it. we got to go into some really cool caverns and some places where we got to crawl around on our bellies and get all dirty. it was mind blowing! i think i want to bring dad there when he comes. i also got some excellent pictures, but i forgot to bring my camera chord, so i'll send some next week. i loved it!

so whitney is done with dance? that is kinda weird, but it's ok. there is a time and a season for everything, and that season has ended. now it's time to get on with your life and do all that fun stuff. i'm proud of you girl, you're awesome.

i think that's just everyting. time is going way to fast. i'm under 5 months left now. apuh! thanks for all of your support and prayers. i can't express how much i appreciate it.

love,
elder troxel
ps- go cougs!

Here is a link for the caves that Jordan was talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niah_Cave