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
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Thirty-three Double-go Zero
Dear family,
this week was fantastic. we left for singapore last thursday morning, and didn't get back until saturday night. it was an excellent trip though. the zone leader conference was awesome. president clark is really shaking things up and changing a lot of stuff. it's all good though, and i think it will really help the work. the last six months or so, the mission has really slowed down a ton, but everybody is really excited about the changes and i think it will really help.
not too long ago, we got a referral from a member in a different branch for a family of seven. we met them for the first time about three weeks ago on a friday, and they all came to church the first sunday. however, after that they kind of backed off and i was really worried that we were going to lose them, especially with all the time that we've been spending out of our area. when we got home on saturday night, we jumped on our bikes and made the ride out there to try and get one last push and get them to church. we had a member meet us there so that she could help us teach and bear testimony to try and give this family the best possible chance we could.
one of the big problems is that the dad in this family is always working, and it's super hard to meet with him, but he happened to be there that night, even though he told us he wouldn't be. we sat down with them and started to teach them about the gospel. we taught about faith and repentance, and then i felt like we should throw out the church invitation then, so we did, and they said that they couldn't come. we talked for awhile longer and finally got down to what his real concern was- he is afraid to leave his old church because he converted most of his family into that church, and it would be hard to leave. then, out of nowhere, our member slaps them in the face with an amazing testimony and her conversion story. he still wouldn't budge, but we went back on monday night to teach them again, and brought the same member and her daughter.
it was so awesome. the dad hadn't read the chapter we gave him from the book of mormon (3 nephi 27), so we threw out the original lesson plan and read that chapter with them. after we read it together, the conversation split into three different parts. our member (Ulat) started talking with the mom in the family, i started trying to resolve the dads concerns more, and elder watkins talked with the kids. i didn't make too much progress with the dad, but he budged a bit. the mom was completely won over by sister Ulat, and when we got up to leave, she told us to sit down so she could talk more with Ulat. it was awesome. we tried to set and appointment for friday, but they requested that we come back sooner than that, so we're going back there tonight. yeah, they're baptized...
while i was in singapore, i got a chance to talk a bit with president clark about what i should do with the end of my mission. i told him that i've felt for awhile like i wanted to extend a month, but that i also really wanted to try and walk on and play football. i asked him for advice, and he told me that i should look at the pros and cons. first off, he told me that i'm under no obligation to extend my mission. in fact, if i made the decision that i wanted to play football, i would even be able to come home a couple weeks early. then he talked to me about what could happen. what happens if i make a huge effort to go home (possibly even early) and get back in shape, and then don't make the team? what a waste, especially when i could have had more time serving the Lord. Or, what if i do make it, and then i just get injured? that could screw up a lot of things for a long time.
then he asked me, "will playing football be helping you in your career path?"... not really, no. he also asked me, "who would you be playing for- you, or the Lord?" of course, me. football would not help me at all in getting back to the celestial kingdom. he also threw in there, "is that the kind of environment and friends you want to be around?" typically no, but at BYU i think it would be a lot better. anywho, he really made me think about a lot of things. if i were to try and play, it wouldn't be bad, but there are a lot better things that i could be doing.
does that mean that i don't want to play anymore? absolutely not, i still really want to play football, but it does mean that i'll be finishing my mission on February 10th, no earlier, and no later. then dad and i can jalan-jalan for a few days, and i'll be back. with enough time, if i really want it, to get into as good of shape as possible before i try-out... but just in case i do, i've already gotten in touch with coach clark and asked him to help me with a work out program that i can do in the mornings and at nights to try and come home in some kind of decent shape =)
by the way, happy birthday to Jackson, Mandy, and TJ! or, as they say in Malay, "selamat hari jadi"
good luck in college whitney. tell me how it is.
oh yeah, i did draw out money from my account a couple weeks ago while i was in singapore last time. you may want to check the dates. i think i did the withdrawals on the 11th and 13th of august, or around there. if it happened just in the last couple days, it wasn't me. i haven't touched it since the 13th.
i think that's everything. things are starting to get moving in our area, and things in the zone are going really well. thank you for your support and prayers.
love you all,
elder Troxel
Note from Dad: Jordan sent a few pictures home in this email. There was no explanation or description in the letter on when or where the picture were taken. It appears that Jordan has been taking lessons from Michael on how to pose for pictures.
this week was fantastic. we left for singapore last thursday morning, and didn't get back until saturday night. it was an excellent trip though. the zone leader conference was awesome. president clark is really shaking things up and changing a lot of stuff. it's all good though, and i think it will really help the work. the last six months or so, the mission has really slowed down a ton, but everybody is really excited about the changes and i think it will really help.
not too long ago, we got a referral from a member in a different branch for a family of seven. we met them for the first time about three weeks ago on a friday, and they all came to church the first sunday. however, after that they kind of backed off and i was really worried that we were going to lose them, especially with all the time that we've been spending out of our area. when we got home on saturday night, we jumped on our bikes and made the ride out there to try and get one last push and get them to church. we had a member meet us there so that she could help us teach and bear testimony to try and give this family the best possible chance we could.
one of the big problems is that the dad in this family is always working, and it's super hard to meet with him, but he happened to be there that night, even though he told us he wouldn't be. we sat down with them and started to teach them about the gospel. we taught about faith and repentance, and then i felt like we should throw out the church invitation then, so we did, and they said that they couldn't come. we talked for awhile longer and finally got down to what his real concern was- he is afraid to leave his old church because he converted most of his family into that church, and it would be hard to leave. then, out of nowhere, our member slaps them in the face with an amazing testimony and her conversion story. he still wouldn't budge, but we went back on monday night to teach them again, and brought the same member and her daughter.
it was so awesome. the dad hadn't read the chapter we gave him from the book of mormon (3 nephi 27), so we threw out the original lesson plan and read that chapter with them. after we read it together, the conversation split into three different parts. our member (Ulat) started talking with the mom in the family, i started trying to resolve the dads concerns more, and elder watkins talked with the kids. i didn't make too much progress with the dad, but he budged a bit. the mom was completely won over by sister Ulat, and when we got up to leave, she told us to sit down so she could talk more with Ulat. it was awesome. we tried to set and appointment for friday, but they requested that we come back sooner than that, so we're going back there tonight. yeah, they're baptized...
while i was in singapore, i got a chance to talk a bit with president clark about what i should do with the end of my mission. i told him that i've felt for awhile like i wanted to extend a month, but that i also really wanted to try and walk on and play football. i asked him for advice, and he told me that i should look at the pros and cons. first off, he told me that i'm under no obligation to extend my mission. in fact, if i made the decision that i wanted to play football, i would even be able to come home a couple weeks early. then he talked to me about what could happen. what happens if i make a huge effort to go home (possibly even early) and get back in shape, and then don't make the team? what a waste, especially when i could have had more time serving the Lord. Or, what if i do make it, and then i just get injured? that could screw up a lot of things for a long time.
then he asked me, "will playing football be helping you in your career path?"... not really, no. he also asked me, "who would you be playing for- you, or the Lord?" of course, me. football would not help me at all in getting back to the celestial kingdom. he also threw in there, "is that the kind of environment and friends you want to be around?" typically no, but at BYU i think it would be a lot better. anywho, he really made me think about a lot of things. if i were to try and play, it wouldn't be bad, but there are a lot better things that i could be doing.
does that mean that i don't want to play anymore? absolutely not, i still really want to play football, but it does mean that i'll be finishing my mission on February 10th, no earlier, and no later. then dad and i can jalan-jalan for a few days, and i'll be back. with enough time, if i really want it, to get into as good of shape as possible before i try-out... but just in case i do, i've already gotten in touch with coach clark and asked him to help me with a work out program that i can do in the mornings and at nights to try and come home in some kind of decent shape =)
by the way, happy birthday to Jackson, Mandy, and TJ! or, as they say in Malay, "selamat hari jadi"
good luck in college whitney. tell me how it is.
oh yeah, i did draw out money from my account a couple weeks ago while i was in singapore last time. you may want to check the dates. i think i did the withdrawals on the 11th and 13th of august, or around there. if it happened just in the last couple days, it wasn't me. i haven't touched it since the 13th.
i think that's everything. things are starting to get moving in our area, and things in the zone are going really well. thank you for your support and prayers.
love you all,
elder Troxel
Note from Dad: Jordan sent a few pictures home in this email. There was no explanation or description in the letter on when or where the picture were taken. It appears that Jordan has been taking lessons from Michael on how to pose for pictures.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
This is Trunking Me Out of My Mind!
dear family,
oh my heavens! i'm so pumped for football i can't stand it! that's so awesome to hear about Craig and how well he is doing. starting against Oklahoma?! geez louise! i played with that guy! i'm sure the fire will die down, but right now i want to go back and play so bad. we'll just give it a week or so, and see how getting up and running every morning feels. i've been trying to get back into some sort of shape, and i've formulated an awesome workout plan, including diet, which (in theory) if done the right way, would help me to at least get a head start for when i get back. but it's nearly impossible to diet here, and it's just as difficult to stay motivated every day to get up early and do an intense enough work-out to actually help get in shape, rather than just keep the fat from overtaking me. we'll see though. that email gave me a good vision. i want to play.
so back to the missionary work. this last week, to be completely honest, was horrific. i won't go into details why, but it will suffice to say that this is the hardest area i've been in yet. fortunately, i've got elder watkins as my companion, and for whatever reason, we work fantastically together. we were able to see amazing things happen while we were together in sibu (which, for your information, has gone from being one branch when i first got there to just becoming it's own district. incredible), and we're starting to see some good things happen here.
it makes it even more difficult that we've got all of our zone leader duties that we have to take care of on top of having a hard area. for instance, we're going to singapore again tomorrow for a zone leader conference and will be out of our area for 3 days. aduh, that is the last thing we need right now. but i have high hopes, and i know that this area has the same amount of potential that sibu had. the people of bintulu just really need a lot of prayers. PLEASE pray for them.
we did have a few baptisms this last week though. Tony, Ledis Stella, and Wiwik all got baptized on saturday. i love them. all three of them are top notch. our next baptism won't be until next week, but we should have at least a few more.
as far as my health goes, i'm holding up pretty well (which is more than i can say for any of my clothes). bintulu is NOT a sanitary place, and a lot of missionaries get really sick here. i'm just a little sick right now, but i still have yet to be sick enough to stay inside. we try our best to take care of ourselves, so don't worry. malaysia does begin to wear on ones body after two years though.
jackson is already one?! oh man, i don't even know him! how are my other anakbuah-anakbuah (nephews and nieces)? has michael had any kids yet? so about this extension, i'm still not sure if i'm going to do it. if you could try and find out for me when walk-ons are, that would be easier to make a decision. maybe you could get me coach wong's email and i could email him about it. if i decide that i am going to play football, i'll be coming home in february, but if i decide to pass it up, then i'll extend. i'll pray about it, and i'll talk to president clark while i'm in singapore this week.
oh yeah, is it pretty sure that dad is coming? because i've already told most of my recent converts that i'll be coming to visit them with my dad in february or march...when do you want me to write the essay for my BYU application?
anywho, i think that's it. thank you for all of your support and all the prayers... and keep them coming!
love,
elder troxel
oh my heavens! i'm so pumped for football i can't stand it! that's so awesome to hear about Craig and how well he is doing. starting against Oklahoma?! geez louise! i played with that guy! i'm sure the fire will die down, but right now i want to go back and play so bad. we'll just give it a week or so, and see how getting up and running every morning feels. i've been trying to get back into some sort of shape, and i've formulated an awesome workout plan, including diet, which (in theory) if done the right way, would help me to at least get a head start for when i get back. but it's nearly impossible to diet here, and it's just as difficult to stay motivated every day to get up early and do an intense enough work-out to actually help get in shape, rather than just keep the fat from overtaking me. we'll see though. that email gave me a good vision. i want to play.
so back to the missionary work. this last week, to be completely honest, was horrific. i won't go into details why, but it will suffice to say that this is the hardest area i've been in yet. fortunately, i've got elder watkins as my companion, and for whatever reason, we work fantastically together. we were able to see amazing things happen while we were together in sibu (which, for your information, has gone from being one branch when i first got there to just becoming it's own district. incredible), and we're starting to see some good things happen here.
it makes it even more difficult that we've got all of our zone leader duties that we have to take care of on top of having a hard area. for instance, we're going to singapore again tomorrow for a zone leader conference and will be out of our area for 3 days. aduh, that is the last thing we need right now. but i have high hopes, and i know that this area has the same amount of potential that sibu had. the people of bintulu just really need a lot of prayers. PLEASE pray for them.
we did have a few baptisms this last week though. Tony, Ledis Stella, and Wiwik all got baptized on saturday. i love them. all three of them are top notch. our next baptism won't be until next week, but we should have at least a few more.
as far as my health goes, i'm holding up pretty well (which is more than i can say for any of my clothes). bintulu is NOT a sanitary place, and a lot of missionaries get really sick here. i'm just a little sick right now, but i still have yet to be sick enough to stay inside. we try our best to take care of ourselves, so don't worry. malaysia does begin to wear on ones body after two years though.
jackson is already one?! oh man, i don't even know him! how are my other anakbuah-anakbuah (nephews and nieces)? has michael had any kids yet? so about this extension, i'm still not sure if i'm going to do it. if you could try and find out for me when walk-ons are, that would be easier to make a decision. maybe you could get me coach wong's email and i could email him about it. if i decide that i am going to play football, i'll be coming home in february, but if i decide to pass it up, then i'll extend. i'll pray about it, and i'll talk to president clark while i'm in singapore this week.
oh yeah, is it pretty sure that dad is coming? because i've already told most of my recent converts that i'll be coming to visit them with my dad in february or march...when do you want me to write the essay for my BYU application?
anywho, i think that's it. thank you for all of your support and all the prayers... and keep them coming!
love,
elder troxel
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Back in Nam...
keluargaku,
whoa, this is the first week i can remember that I've only gotten one email! that just means that there is no more missionary forwards to send because they are all home! apuh! that makes me feel really weird. is Andrew any fatter? i hope so... i don't want to be the only obese one when i get home. just kidding, i can't imagine Andrew being fat.
so Whitney finally got a job! that is fantastic! when does BYU start? is Whitney just going to live at home for the first while? what is she studying? oh man, she'll have to help me out a lot with school and stuff. just tell her to stay away from returned missionaries... they are bahaya (dangerous). in speaking of schools, I'd also like to apply to UVU probably, just in case i can't get into BYU, and i still have a lot of interest in going to a military academy. I'll hold off on trying to do that until after i get home though. i don't know what other schools to apply to... i don't think i could get in really anywhere but BYU or UVU. if i want to play football (which i really want to do right now, but it might be too time consuming), i will try and walk on at the Y. I've thought about Snow or SUU, but I'm not going to do that. maybe U of U...
anywho, this week has been really busy as always. we got back from Singapore on Thursday night. we got a couple of good days of work in and managed to bring a decent amount of investigators to church. my goal before the time i leave here is to consistently have 20 investigators at church. anyway, we had to get our zone training done by Monday, because we went down to Miri to do it there yesterday. it went really well, so hopefully we'll be able to see some improvements in how things are going there.
i got to go on exchanges with elder lam and my son elder kartchner yesterday. it was a really fun exchange for a few reasons:
1. i got to see my son who i haven't seen in almost a year.
2. i got to ride this awesome girls bike the whole day. it was super small and my knees pretty much hit my chest every time i pedaled.
3. i got to eat a ton of super delicious Vietnamese food!
that's actually a really cool story. elder lam is an American born Vietnamese elder. he speaks Vietnamese fluently, so he was really surprised when he got called to this mission Chinese speaking. of course, he accepted the call gladly, but he always felt a strong desire to teach vietnamese people. anywho, he's in Miri Sarawak (which is just about the last place in the world you would ever think to find anyone from really anywhere) when one day they get a flat tire at night. they didn't want to just go home, so they decided to knock on some doors near their apartment. they knocked on a wealthier house and started to have a nice little chat with this man. he wasn't really interested at all... until elder lam asked where he was from. I'm sure that elder lam wet himself when the guy said he was from Vietnam. they invited him back another day for a traditional Vietnamese meal, and i got to go! i didn't understand anything that was going on, but i ate a TON.
during the appointment (i didn't understand what was being said) but elder lam asked some question, and when the guy answered, elder lam got super excited. it was pretty funny, so i asked him what had been said. i guess the guy had just told elder lam that there was 5 other Vietnamese families in the area that would be interested in meeting him and learning. it was really fun to see.
well, i had a lot of things that i wanted to tell you, but i can't remember all of them. i hate it when that happens. i hope everybody is still healthy and happy. keep on keepin' on.
love,
elder troxel
Note from Dad: Jordan sent the following images home. I believe them to be from his last visa run to Singapore, but there was no explanation attached to the email. We always like pictures, they are a real treat no matter when they were taken.
whoa, this is the first week i can remember that I've only gotten one email! that just means that there is no more missionary forwards to send because they are all home! apuh! that makes me feel really weird. is Andrew any fatter? i hope so... i don't want to be the only obese one when i get home. just kidding, i can't imagine Andrew being fat.
so Whitney finally got a job! that is fantastic! when does BYU start? is Whitney just going to live at home for the first while? what is she studying? oh man, she'll have to help me out a lot with school and stuff. just tell her to stay away from returned missionaries... they are bahaya (dangerous). in speaking of schools, I'd also like to apply to UVU probably, just in case i can't get into BYU, and i still have a lot of interest in going to a military academy. I'll hold off on trying to do that until after i get home though. i don't know what other schools to apply to... i don't think i could get in really anywhere but BYU or UVU. if i want to play football (which i really want to do right now, but it might be too time consuming), i will try and walk on at the Y. I've thought about Snow or SUU, but I'm not going to do that. maybe U of U...
anywho, this week has been really busy as always. we got back from Singapore on Thursday night. we got a couple of good days of work in and managed to bring a decent amount of investigators to church. my goal before the time i leave here is to consistently have 20 investigators at church. anyway, we had to get our zone training done by Monday, because we went down to Miri to do it there yesterday. it went really well, so hopefully we'll be able to see some improvements in how things are going there.
i got to go on exchanges with elder lam and my son elder kartchner yesterday. it was a really fun exchange for a few reasons:
1. i got to see my son who i haven't seen in almost a year.
2. i got to ride this awesome girls bike the whole day. it was super small and my knees pretty much hit my chest every time i pedaled.
3. i got to eat a ton of super delicious Vietnamese food!
that's actually a really cool story. elder lam is an American born Vietnamese elder. he speaks Vietnamese fluently, so he was really surprised when he got called to this mission Chinese speaking. of course, he accepted the call gladly, but he always felt a strong desire to teach vietnamese people. anywho, he's in Miri Sarawak (which is just about the last place in the world you would ever think to find anyone from really anywhere) when one day they get a flat tire at night. they didn't want to just go home, so they decided to knock on some doors near their apartment. they knocked on a wealthier house and started to have a nice little chat with this man. he wasn't really interested at all... until elder lam asked where he was from. I'm sure that elder lam wet himself when the guy said he was from Vietnam. they invited him back another day for a traditional Vietnamese meal, and i got to go! i didn't understand anything that was going on, but i ate a TON.
during the appointment (i didn't understand what was being said) but elder lam asked some question, and when the guy answered, elder lam got super excited. it was pretty funny, so i asked him what had been said. i guess the guy had just told elder lam that there was 5 other Vietnamese families in the area that would be interested in meeting him and learning. it was really fun to see.
well, i had a lot of things that i wanted to tell you, but i can't remember all of them. i hate it when that happens. i hope everybody is still healthy and happy. keep on keepin' on.
love,
elder troxel
Note from Dad: Jordan sent the following images home. I believe them to be from his last visa run to Singapore, but there was no explanation attached to the email. We always like pictures, they are a real treat no matter when they were taken.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Double Western Bacon Burger
Dear family,
prayers answered! whitney got some interviews! hopefully she gets one of the jobs... and i cannot believe that progress has been made in the back yard! all i imagine when i think about our backyard is dirt and weeds. i didn't think anything would actually come of it. it'll be fun to come back and see.
so right now i am on a visa run in singapore. it's been fun so far for a few reasons. i'm here with some really awesome missionaries. elder watkins is with me, along with elder pace (who was with me in the MTC and in sibu), elder campbell (who i always have a lot to talk about with because he replaced me in sibu), elder bickmore (who i'm just good friends with) and elder Parker (who is a stud and was with me in sibu). i've gotten to meet a couple new missionaries that i haven't met before. it's funny, because more and more new missionaries, when they meet me ask, "hey, are you the one with the blog?" that was a pretty good idea.
anywho, the way visa runs usually work is that you will go and do splits with one of the other missionaries serving there, but there have been some pretty big changes lately. they've taken almost all of the missionaries out of singapore, so when you get a big group of visa runners that come in now, there aren't enough missionaries serving there to split with. so the new policy is that we just get an all day p-day. so the day is ours to do whatever we want in singapore, and you know what the first thing i'm going to do is??? get myself a Double Western Bacon burger at Carl's Jr! oh baby, it has been 5 long months since i've had one of those!
i'm really excited about our area though, so this visa run is really more of just an unneeded disruption (except it is kinda needed, otherwise my visa would have expired). it's been a little bit rough the last few weeks. when i got there, the area had just had a lot of baptisms, and was on the end of the wave, with not really very many others to work with. so elder Gulbrandsen and i worked extremely hard with the members to get them giving us more referrals, but while i was with him, we didn't get to see many results from it. however, we are seeing them now. we have gotten some really excellent referrals in the last week, including a couple absolutely golden families (knock on wood). the i'm a tad bit concerned about us being gone out of our area for these three days, because there is a huge problem in bintulu with people getting anti-ed. we've had so many golden referrals go down the drain because their poopy anti neighbors got to them before we could sit down and help them build their testimonies. it's hard to help someone get answers to prayers when they won't let you in. the reason everybody is anti is that they've heard about the word of wisdom, and drinking is a HUGE part of Iban culture...but i really hope these "golden investigators" won't have lost any luster by the time we see them again.
so andrew should be home now... wow. i cannot believe it. i don't believe it actually. i'm still only 3 months out! nick morely will be home soon also! then beau, then rittmanic! then everybody will be married. oh no! why do we have to get old?
you mentioned about applying to BYU. yeah, i guess we could start doing that sometime soon. if you could get most of the stuff ready, that would be great... and i wouldn't complain if mom wrote the little essay thing at the end either... i'm not exactly 100% sure about what's going to happen when i get back (i'm actually not even probably 10% sure), but when i get to the point of being only about 4 months left, i will start to think and pray about it. but like dad said, i still have a LOT of time left, so no worries.
i will definitely remember Lincoln in my fast. as far a mission fast goes, we really aren't supposed to involve a lot of other missionaries in fasts for things back home, just like we're not supposed to involve you in our fasts for people here, but i will talk with the people in my district and we might be able to do something like that. i'm sure they would be happy to do anything to help. in the mean time, tell him hello for me. tell him not to worry and that he's not doing this alone. there are a lot of people praying for him, and as much pain and sorrow he might go through, he's not doing it alone. if i recall, someone has already "born our griefs, carried our sorrows, and with HIS stripes, we are healed." just tell him to hang in there.
i'm still toying with the idea of extending. i can't really see any reason not to. i won't make a definite decision until probably octoberish, but if there's any big reasons not to, let me know. i don't think it's a big deal though, it's only a month after all.
anywho, say hello to everybody for me. i hope everybody is healthy and happy. keep the commandments and have a wonderful week!
love,
elder troxel
prayers answered! whitney got some interviews! hopefully she gets one of the jobs... and i cannot believe that progress has been made in the back yard! all i imagine when i think about our backyard is dirt and weeds. i didn't think anything would actually come of it. it'll be fun to come back and see.
so right now i am on a visa run in singapore. it's been fun so far for a few reasons. i'm here with some really awesome missionaries. elder watkins is with me, along with elder pace (who was with me in the MTC and in sibu), elder campbell (who i always have a lot to talk about with because he replaced me in sibu), elder bickmore (who i'm just good friends with) and elder Parker (who is a stud and was with me in sibu). i've gotten to meet a couple new missionaries that i haven't met before. it's funny, because more and more new missionaries, when they meet me ask, "hey, are you the one with the blog?" that was a pretty good idea.
anywho, the way visa runs usually work is that you will go and do splits with one of the other missionaries serving there, but there have been some pretty big changes lately. they've taken almost all of the missionaries out of singapore, so when you get a big group of visa runners that come in now, there aren't enough missionaries serving there to split with. so the new policy is that we just get an all day p-day. so the day is ours to do whatever we want in singapore, and you know what the first thing i'm going to do is??? get myself a Double Western Bacon burger at Carl's Jr! oh baby, it has been 5 long months since i've had one of those!
i'm really excited about our area though, so this visa run is really more of just an unneeded disruption (except it is kinda needed, otherwise my visa would have expired). it's been a little bit rough the last few weeks. when i got there, the area had just had a lot of baptisms, and was on the end of the wave, with not really very many others to work with. so elder Gulbrandsen and i worked extremely hard with the members to get them giving us more referrals, but while i was with him, we didn't get to see many results from it. however, we are seeing them now. we have gotten some really excellent referrals in the last week, including a couple absolutely golden families (knock on wood). the i'm a tad bit concerned about us being gone out of our area for these three days, because there is a huge problem in bintulu with people getting anti-ed. we've had so many golden referrals go down the drain because their poopy anti neighbors got to them before we could sit down and help them build their testimonies. it's hard to help someone get answers to prayers when they won't let you in. the reason everybody is anti is that they've heard about the word of wisdom, and drinking is a HUGE part of Iban culture...but i really hope these "golden investigators" won't have lost any luster by the time we see them again.
so andrew should be home now... wow. i cannot believe it. i don't believe it actually. i'm still only 3 months out! nick morely will be home soon also! then beau, then rittmanic! then everybody will be married. oh no! why do we have to get old?
you mentioned about applying to BYU. yeah, i guess we could start doing that sometime soon. if you could get most of the stuff ready, that would be great... and i wouldn't complain if mom wrote the little essay thing at the end either... i'm not exactly 100% sure about what's going to happen when i get back (i'm actually not even probably 10% sure), but when i get to the point of being only about 4 months left, i will start to think and pray about it. but like dad said, i still have a LOT of time left, so no worries.
i will definitely remember Lincoln in my fast. as far a mission fast goes, we really aren't supposed to involve a lot of other missionaries in fasts for things back home, just like we're not supposed to involve you in our fasts for people here, but i will talk with the people in my district and we might be able to do something like that. i'm sure they would be happy to do anything to help. in the mean time, tell him hello for me. tell him not to worry and that he's not doing this alone. there are a lot of people praying for him, and as much pain and sorrow he might go through, he's not doing it alone. if i recall, someone has already "born our griefs, carried our sorrows, and with HIS stripes, we are healed." just tell him to hang in there.
i'm still toying with the idea of extending. i can't really see any reason not to. i won't make a definite decision until probably octoberish, but if there's any big reasons not to, let me know. i don't think it's a big deal though, it's only a month after all.
anywho, say hello to everybody for me. i hope everybody is healthy and happy. keep the commandments and have a wonderful week!
love,
elder troxel
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I'm All Out of Snazzy Subject Lines!
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
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
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Walk the Line
dear family,
thank you for the email. that is pretty ridiculous to hear about dad's job. but dad is right not to worry, you have always strived to follow the commandments, so the Lord will provide. hakuna matata.
right now I'm sitting here in the internet cafe, sippin' some "air sejuk" in my brand new eccos! yay! i got three packages today! today and tomorrow is zone conference, so that's why you are getting this email a day late (sorry about that). when the assistants came from Singapore, they brought both shoe packages AND my Easter package! it's been a solid year at least since i have seen a twinkie, so those were a blessed sight. the shoes are really nice. not quite as nice as the other ones were when i bought them, but it's ok. you should see those shoes now. I've continued to wear them, and they are completely thrashed now! I'm excited for you to get to see them in February. thank you very much for getting that together for me, they were desperately needed.
wow Whitney... reno? that's crazy. ya know, i once shot a man in reno, just to watch him die...
so Liz is married, huh? that's pretty wild. if you see her, wish her the best from me... and tell her to tell her husband that if he doesn't take her to the temple, he had better jaga diri. I'm happy for her though. i remember back in the day when we used to always tell everybody that we were brother and sister. good times, good times.
there are some pretty wild things going on here. we found out for sure this last week that elder gulbrandsen is going to the office as assistant on Sunday... and elder Watkins is going to be my companion again! that'll be so fun. i love elder watkins. it's going to be nuts, because i've actually only had about seven days to work in my area, because we've been so busy with exchanges and zone conference and stuff. but it'll be really good. elder watkins and i had a ton of success together, so i have no doubt that we will be able to turn it on again in this area.
i got to burn a pair of pants last night for my 18 month mark. i actually haven't quite gotten there yet, but elder sederholm and elder hart just hit one year, and since they were here for zone conference, we just did our burning together last night. we're into the home stretch! 4th quarter! bahagian keempat!
i got a really nice letter from Chelsie yesterday. have you heard anything from her? is she back from her trip in Europe yet? if you do get to see her, tell her i'm uber sorry that i haven't written in such a long time, but i will without a doubt write her next week. we've just been so crazy busy lately that i never even have a chance to sit-down. it's just huru-hara here.
anywho, since it's zone conference, football is calling my name... and i must obey.
i love you all.
elder troxel
thank you for the email. that is pretty ridiculous to hear about dad's job. but dad is right not to worry, you have always strived to follow the commandments, so the Lord will provide. hakuna matata.
right now I'm sitting here in the internet cafe, sippin' some "air sejuk" in my brand new eccos! yay! i got three packages today! today and tomorrow is zone conference, so that's why you are getting this email a day late (sorry about that). when the assistants came from Singapore, they brought both shoe packages AND my Easter package! it's been a solid year at least since i have seen a twinkie, so those were a blessed sight. the shoes are really nice. not quite as nice as the other ones were when i bought them, but it's ok. you should see those shoes now. I've continued to wear them, and they are completely thrashed now! I'm excited for you to get to see them in February. thank you very much for getting that together for me, they were desperately needed.
wow Whitney... reno? that's crazy. ya know, i once shot a man in reno, just to watch him die...
so Liz is married, huh? that's pretty wild. if you see her, wish her the best from me... and tell her to tell her husband that if he doesn't take her to the temple, he had better jaga diri. I'm happy for her though. i remember back in the day when we used to always tell everybody that we were brother and sister. good times, good times.
there are some pretty wild things going on here. we found out for sure this last week that elder gulbrandsen is going to the office as assistant on Sunday... and elder Watkins is going to be my companion again! that'll be so fun. i love elder watkins. it's going to be nuts, because i've actually only had about seven days to work in my area, because we've been so busy with exchanges and zone conference and stuff. but it'll be really good. elder watkins and i had a ton of success together, so i have no doubt that we will be able to turn it on again in this area.
i got to burn a pair of pants last night for my 18 month mark. i actually haven't quite gotten there yet, but elder sederholm and elder hart just hit one year, and since they were here for zone conference, we just did our burning together last night. we're into the home stretch! 4th quarter! bahagian keempat!
i got a really nice letter from Chelsie yesterday. have you heard anything from her? is she back from her trip in Europe yet? if you do get to see her, tell her i'm uber sorry that i haven't written in such a long time, but i will without a doubt write her next week. we've just been so crazy busy lately that i never even have a chance to sit-down. it's just huru-hara here.
anywho, since it's zone conference, football is calling my name... and i must obey.
i love you all.
elder troxel
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