Bliss

Dear Family,

The coolest part by far about being an assistant is that you get to travel around to all the different parts of the mission. Right now we're in my old area, Kota Kinabalu. I love this place so much. I was only here for a couple of months, but it was one of my favorite areas. We left singapore yesterday at around noon and got here at 5:15 after a short lay-over in Kuching.

We have the all-day P-day today and tomorrow is the actual conference. We did the whole interview thing this morning at the church where I also got to meet up with some good friends that I haven't seen for awhile. We then went to eat at my favorite food-court and just got finished bowling. I LOVE THIS PLACE! But you know what I love more? Teaching! It's a bit tough being in the office, because you don't really get a chance to go out while you're there. It's been really fun to give trainings though, because it's still teaching, but instead of investigators, we just teach the teachers. It's pretty cool.

This week is Elder Gulbrandsen's last. We will go from here to KL tomorrow for zone conference there, and his parents will meet him there on Friday. My new companion's name is Elder Stone. He's really awesome. He used to be in my zone when I was here in KK. I can't remember where he's from, but I ran against him in track. He remembers that well, because he had the unfortunate opportunity to hold my blocks when I was wearing my speed suit. It will be fun to be his companion.

I'm a little bit nervous (a lot a bit actually) about becoming the senior assistant because I've only had a month to learn the ropes and now I'm pretty much in the driver's seat. I do appreciate your support and prayers though. You have no idea how much of a strength they are to me. Thank you.

I'm sorry to say, but I'm still not exactly sure of the day that I'm going to finish. It still hasn't been confirmed, so we'll just have to wait and see. Best case scenario is that my last tour will be on February 20 as expected, we travel until Wednesday the 24th and Dad meets me in Singapore that same day. That would be awesome, but I'm waiting for everything to be confirmed before I talk with President about going home on the 24th. I'd be going home by myself and he doesn't really like to do that, but I may be able to sway him. We'll see. If not, I'll be finishing on March 10. Still ok, but I'd rather get home as soon as possible. That is the absolute latest I can stay without getting approval from the missionary committee. That's the look of things for right now, but I will shoot you an email as soon as we know that it's really going to happen.

I totally forgot that BYU and Utah were playing this week until Sunday. In the ward I'm in now, most of the people graduated from BYU and are huge fans. A few of them got to watch the first half before church and recorded the second half to watch after. We had Sister Clark look up the final score after church. The most surprising thing about the whole game was Max Hall's comment at the end. Wow, no class. That made me wish that BYU had lost. He's not a good enough quarterback to be talking smack like that. I'm still glad we won though.

Cool story. I don't know if you remember or not, maybe I never mentioned it, but when I was still training in Klang, we taught a guy named Eddy. We had some of the most powerful lessons I ever have been involved in with him, and yet, he still chose to reject even though he knew that he'd felt the spirit testify to him that it was true. However, the wonderful news that I just heard yesterday, is that after almost 2years he met up with the Elders there again and now he is on date to be baptized! I could not believe it! It may have been the happiest that I have ever felt. I still am on cloud nine knowing that he's gotten a second chance and is willing to accept in now. YES! I'm so happy!

Anywho, we'll be gone this entire week and then we get back to Singapore on Sunday night. We'll be there for a couple weeks with no interruptions and then we start our exchange cycle and will be gone for a couple more weeks. Then mission tour comes around and then (hopefully) I'll go home! As long as I can get past the next two weeks when we don't have anything, I'm home free.

I love you all! And I'll inform you as soon as I know what's going on.

Love,
Elder Troxel