Jordan's Mission Apartments


View Jordan's Apartments in a larger map

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

This email is lame!

Dear family,

Another week gone. I thought time would go a lot slower once I got to the office, but I was wrong. I've been here for almost a month already. Ayoh. The last two weeks have been filled with traveling to and from zone conferences, giving trainings, and quite a bit of futsol. We've got this week off (not really, but we don't have any zone conferences) and we finish off this ZC cycle next week. Elder Gulbrandsen will be finishing his mission on Friday of next week, and then I will get my final companion.

Anywho, good to hear that Timpview is still rolling. I was a bit worried earlier this season when you told me that they'd already lost two games. This week will be a trial for me because I would give just about anything to be at that BYU-Utah game this week. It's ok though, I guess I can survive until next season.
I got an email from Beau today! I was pretty excited.

Um... Everything is going well here. I'm working hard and hanging in there. Sorry that this email is really lame, but they probably aren't going to get much better. But hey, I love you all. Have a wonderful day!

love,
Elder Troxel

ps- I haven't received any packages yet, but I'll tell you when I do.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ayoh!

dear family,

i'm sorry that my emails have been a little bit sporadic lately, but for the rest of my mission i'll be in the office for a total of maybe 3 weeks and the rest of the time i'll be out and about, which means who knows when i'll get chances to email. right now we're in sibu and just halfway through this zone conference cycle. last week was singapore and sarawak north zone conferences, and this week was kuching and sibu zone conferences. it's pretty intense, but it's really fun. i got to see some very close friends from kuching while we were there. i'm going to go see a lot of people here in sibu on friday. life is crazy!

i had president fill out my ecclesiastical thing the other day and i mailed it on tuesday from kuching. all i have to do is finish the other part and my application is done.

i had a dirty trick played on me the other day. we went into the office in the morning, and there on my desk was a flight ticket. who put it there? sister carpenter, the office couple! she did it just to get me trunky! which it did for a bit. i don't know exactly what trunkiness means, but if it means being excited to get on with your life, i think i fall into that category. i've still got a solid 3 months of work left in me though. my work is different now though, i'm more of a coach than a player. i tell people what to do, but i don't get to do it myself. it's fun though, and a good experience.

beau came over! that is crazy. i don't think he would have ever just come over by himself before his mission! i was hoping to have an email or something from him... but nope. last i heard, his girlfriend was still around and waiting patiently for his return. that was about 6 months ago though, so i don't know. i just hope he waits until we can all be roommates together for at least a year before he gets married.

i've got a free week this next week, so i'll try and get some travel arrangements made. i think i only want to go to obviously singapore, but kuching, sibu, bintulu, and KL. i'll try and find some hotels and make travel arrangements if possible. i don't know how much flights cost, but i'll try and remember to find out for you. or you can just call the mission office and ask sister carpenter yourself. either way is fine. i'll ask her about it too.

well, i think that's pretty much it. i get zero time to do any kind of work outs, so i'm getting pretty scrawny, but i'm hoping it will come back fast. by the way, i'm thinking that i may want to go to medical school, but if this socialized medicine poop passes i'll be saying goodbye to that dream.

anywho, i love you all.

love,
elder troxel

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

No Time

dear family,

i'm writing this letter on tuesday night because tomorrow at noon we're flying to miri for zone conference. this week has been pretty sweet. really different, but way fun at the same time. when i last emailed you, i was trying to get versed in the "new missionary orientation," because we had 10 new missionaries come in on thursday. that was really fun. we went to pick them up at the airport with president and sister clark. their plane was more than an hour late, but they finally arrived.

i was especially excited for this group because i knew that there was an elder from timpview coming in. his name is elder christensen. i didn't know him all that well, but i knew his sister sarah. yeah, he's grown a lot. when i last saw him, i swear he was only maybe 5'10" and probably could have sung high tenor, but he's about 6'5" now and is a solid bass. it was fun to see him though. we brought the greenies to do some fun stuff, like eat indian food off banana leaf and other things that i can't really recall. but on friday we put them through orientation and watched a movie with them at night.

we sent them off on saturday and turned our attentions towards other fun things like branch splits. i can't tell you anything about it though, because last time i said something about secret information, i was quoted on "LDS statistics.com", and it hadn't even happened yet. it's fun stuff though.

we had our first zone conference in this cycle yesterday and today. we got to play some awesome futsol. we gave our training this afternoon. it was a bit sketchy because i didn't write really any of this training, it was already done before i got in. it stinks to have to give someone elses training, but it wasn't too bad. what is really strange is that i only have one more zone conference before i go home!
i can't really give you a regular day schedule because it changes every day. we're usually in the office, but we're always doing different things.

i got the picture of the back yard! i didn't think that would ever happen! it actually looks like a yard! apuh! i'm going to write my essays this week mom, and i will ask president clark to do my ecclesiastical thing. sorry it taken so long, but i really have no free time from 8:00 in the morning to 9:30 at night (except for right now).

tell beau hello for me and slap him for not ever emailing me.


love,
elder troxel

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I'm Going to Get Fat...

dear family,

so there i was on wednesday night after planning, just talking with elder watkins, when we get a phone call. i answered and said, "hello, this is elder troxel." i didn't hear anybody, so i said it again. this time i got the response, "hello elder troxel, this is president clark." after some short chit-chat, he told me the reason for which he was calling. "i've been looking at your weekly report, and you checked the box that said your area book isn't updated." (i'm horrible at keeping the area book updated). i responded with, "yeah, we've just got a couple records we haven't created yet, but will get on it." he then said, "well, try and get it updated quickly because you'll be coming in as the next assistant on sunday."

so here i am in the mission office. i got here on sunday night with elder watkins. there was a zone leader conference in singapore on monday, and then i just stayed here. i must admit that i feel very out of place here. i've gone from riding my bike through sweet jungle villages every day, to sitting in a nice air-conditioned office all day. i was eating rice for every meal, and yesterday i ate carl's jr for lunch and had fajitas for dinner. yeah, it's a little bit different than what i'm used to. but it's been fun.

yesterday we did all of our reporting with the zone leaders and eventually reported with president. then last night we went to a farewell dinner for some missionaries going home. i won't have very many chances to do much teaching anymore though, which is really sad, but i'm excited to serve in this new capacity and i hope that the lord will help me to know what i'm doing... because right now i don't :)

my last few days in bintulu were pretty normal. i tried to make the transition as smooth as possible for elder watkins, so i just kinda slipped out the back door. nobody really knew (meaning members) that i was leaving until sunday at church.

thanks for getting everything ready for my application mom. i'll try to get my essays done in these next couple weeks.

so... i go home in three months... i don't know if anybody realized that.

i don't really have much else to say. if you have any questions, just let me know. thanks for all your prayers and support.

Love, Elder Troxel

Mission Field Pictures