Bomo

dear family,

i forgot to tell dad happy birthday last week, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! wow, 50 years old... you are officially over the hill! it's ok, that just means your that much closer to exaltation than the rest of us. the glider ride sounded way fun, but i was thinking sky diving when i get back... how does that sound?

this last week was a really good one, but there has been some wild stuff happening around here. i remember Scott once telling a story about his mission and casting out an evil spirit, and i always wondered what that would be like... well i found out this last week. not once, but TWICE. i won't tell you what exactly happened, but it was pretty wild... and scary. i learned a lot, and i don't have any desire to ever do it again.

along with that, we had 12 baptisms as a zone, and elder watkins and i had 2. we'll have 4 this week, and the zone should have a whopping 17 all together. the four that are getting baptized from our area are all so awesome. we've only known 3 of them for 3 weeks. we met them on a saturday, they came to church the next day, and now three weeks later they are getting baptized. yeah, they were ready for the gospel. i wish it was that easy with everybody. after this week, we'll be over thirty baptisms as a zone for this month (more than twice the number of baptisms that we had in all of september) and well on our way towards reaching our goal of 50 for the month. it's so fun when things are going well. i've seen a lot of changes in this area and this zone in my time here. the Lord has truly answered our prayers and helped us to turn things around.

i talked to sister carpenter in the office about dad coming to pick me up, and she told me quite a few options. unfortunately, i can't really remember anything she said because i didn't write any of it down, but i'll be going to singapore at the first of november and she'll help me when i get there. she also said that she would email you and tell you what you need to do and who to talk to.

i'm pumped for dad to get to see borneo! it will blow his mind. there is no place more beautiful on this earth, i am convinced (given i haven't been everywhere on this earth, but i can't imagine any place being better). i think the celestial kingdom will just be borneo.

i don't really have any other really big news updates, except for the fact that i'm down under 175! holy moley! i'm a shrimp now. i've been running every morningish and not eating after eight o clock, and i'm starting to not be fat! but i still am, just not as fat as before.

i think that's it though. i'm alive. time flies. "yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery, but today is a gift, that's why it's called the present."

i love you all,
elder troxel