dear family,
so this week has been pretty intense, but i think things will start to get back to normal this week, now that the transfer is almost over. i'm sitting here with my new companion... and my old companion. elder tuckfield will be leaving for singapore this afternoon, and then it will just be me and... elder Ogden! I got news that elder ogden was coming here last thursday, and he got here on monday. just in case you don't remember me ever talking about elder Ogden, he is Beau's cousin who i roomed with in the MTC. we were good friends in the MTC and i'm way excited to be companions with him. the two pictures i attached are him and me in the internet cafe. I hadn't seen him for almost 16 months before he got here on monday. it's interesting to see how people change. he's still the same, but he's a lot more mature now. i hope i've gotten more mature... but i doubt it :)
anywho, there was a big hubbub this week with the chinese elders in our zone (who we happened to live with). the church owns 3 apartments in the condo where we live; one was an old couple's apartment, one is really big and nice and had four elders in it, and the one in which i live is really small and nasty and also had four elders in it (us and the chinese elders). anywho, a couple weeks ago, they took one of the companionship's out of the zone and closed their area, which meant that there were only two companionship's living in that really big luxurious apartment, and there was four in ours. now, obviously the smartest thing to do is to move one of the companionship's from ours to the other one. anywho, i wanted to move to the other apartment, but the assistants insisted that the chinese elders move. we told them they had to move to the other one, but they were not happy and wanted to talk to president themselves about it. anywho, they stalled and stalled for almost two weeks without doing anything, until elder tuckfield and i just had to tell that they had to move the next day because elder ogden was coming and there was going to be 5 people in this tiny apartment with only two in the huge one. anywho, to make and even longer story short, they threw a huge fit and they still aren't very happy with us. apa boleh buat? (what can you do?) sometimes missionaries can be extremely ridiculous.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WHITNEY! whoa, you are 18 years old! how does it feel? you can buy dry ice now! yippee! i'm happy to hear that your recital went well. i wish i could've been there. so what did you do for your birthday? was the alfredo delicious? what did you get?
we also went on exchanges twice this last week. i got to go with my grandson! his name is elder johnson. he is my grandson because he was trained by my trainee (elder Kartchner). i took him to the house of these investigators who were supposed to be getting baptized this week and they fed us a ton of curry and rice. i guess it didn't really agree with his stomach, because the whole next day he stayed in sick. we started the exchange at 4:30 on thursday and finished at about 4:30 on friday, but i had to stay in with him until we switched back on friday. oh man, i was going crazy. that was the longest i've ever had to stay in my house on my mission. i was SO antsy! i hope i never get sick, because i wouldn't be able to stand it. i did manage to sew some things though.
anywho, i love you all. i hope everything is still going well. stay safe and don't get swine flu.
love,elder troxel
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Winds of Change!
dear family,
thank you for the emails this week. sorry that i don't put in any translations when i write in a different language. half of the time i don't even know what language i'm speaking anyway. it's exciting that whitney will be doing her recital soon! how does she feel about this being her last one? is she glad, or sad, or mad, or wearing plaid...? or is it just kind of a mix of everything together?
oh man, that was awesome to hear from beau. i got both of the letters. i don't know why he doesn't just send them to me here. i know i've given him my address at least twice. but it was good to hear from him. sounds like he's also speaking a language that they also didn't teach him in the MTC. I don't know if he actually speaks Twi, but he at least knows a few phrases. it's always good to hear from those guys. i got an email from rittmanic today too! he sounds like he's doing well. the only one that i haven't heard from in a long time is andrew. but he's practically dead, so he can just email me when he gets home! man, i'm too young to have my friends coming home from missions.
this week was good, as always. we got news that they're having to close one of the areas in our zone because of a lack of missionaries (and the fact that they weren't doing very much). we have a goal to get 30 baptisms in July, so that's going to make it a little bit more difficult, but from the way things are shaping up right now, we should have about half of that just with our area. things are really going well here. we also got the news that elder tuckfield flies out sunday morning for singapore. i still haven't heard who my new companion will be, but there is a lot of speculation going on. i think it will probably be elder Ogden (beau's cousin who i roomed with in the MTC), but i'm fine with anybody really. but next week i'll have a new companion. i also heard rumors that i might be leaving around the middle of august, but that's a long way away we'll have a new mission president by then, so it's really impossible to say how much longer i'll be here. i'd like to finish my mission in either KL or KK though. i told elder tuckfield to use all of the influence he has to try and make it happen. we'll see.
that's sad to hear about Mike Wear. i've been really fortunate with my health since i've been out. i'm hoping that my luck will last and that i'll never have to see a malaysian doctor. however, there have been a few missionaries lately that have gotten pretty sick (not with the same things though) who will probably have to go home early. i would die.
if you do get a chance to go to Miss Provo, make sure you send me some pictures.
there will be a lot of changes in this zone pretty soon. elder tuckfield leaves sunday, then two weeks later the elder that has been the thorn in my side my entire mission goes home, then a big group of missionaries (including elder palfreyman, but he's not in my zone) goes home july 15. in between all that, president skelton goes home, and president clark will come. by the time that all happens, i'll be dangerously close to the home stretch.
well everybody, i don't think i have much more to say. i love you all. be smart and all that jazz. good luck with the recital whitney!
love,
Elder Troxel
thank you for the emails this week. sorry that i don't put in any translations when i write in a different language. half of the time i don't even know what language i'm speaking anyway. it's exciting that whitney will be doing her recital soon! how does she feel about this being her last one? is she glad, or sad, or mad, or wearing plaid...? or is it just kind of a mix of everything together?
oh man, that was awesome to hear from beau. i got both of the letters. i don't know why he doesn't just send them to me here. i know i've given him my address at least twice. but it was good to hear from him. sounds like he's also speaking a language that they also didn't teach him in the MTC. I don't know if he actually speaks Twi, but he at least knows a few phrases. it's always good to hear from those guys. i got an email from rittmanic today too! he sounds like he's doing well. the only one that i haven't heard from in a long time is andrew. but he's practically dead, so he can just email me when he gets home! man, i'm too young to have my friends coming home from missions.
this week was good, as always. we got news that they're having to close one of the areas in our zone because of a lack of missionaries (and the fact that they weren't doing very much). we have a goal to get 30 baptisms in July, so that's going to make it a little bit more difficult, but from the way things are shaping up right now, we should have about half of that just with our area. things are really going well here. we also got the news that elder tuckfield flies out sunday morning for singapore. i still haven't heard who my new companion will be, but there is a lot of speculation going on. i think it will probably be elder Ogden (beau's cousin who i roomed with in the MTC), but i'm fine with anybody really. but next week i'll have a new companion. i also heard rumors that i might be leaving around the middle of august, but that's a long way away we'll have a new mission president by then, so it's really impossible to say how much longer i'll be here. i'd like to finish my mission in either KL or KK though. i told elder tuckfield to use all of the influence he has to try and make it happen. we'll see.
that's sad to hear about Mike Wear. i've been really fortunate with my health since i've been out. i'm hoping that my luck will last and that i'll never have to see a malaysian doctor. however, there have been a few missionaries lately that have gotten pretty sick (not with the same things though) who will probably have to go home early. i would die.
if you do get a chance to go to Miss Provo, make sure you send me some pictures.
there will be a lot of changes in this zone pretty soon. elder tuckfield leaves sunday, then two weeks later the elder that has been the thorn in my side my entire mission goes home, then a big group of missionaries (including elder palfreyman, but he's not in my zone) goes home july 15. in between all that, president skelton goes home, and president clark will come. by the time that all happens, i'll be dangerously close to the home stretch.
well everybody, i don't think i have much more to say. i love you all. be smart and all that jazz. good luck with the recital whitney!
love,
Elder Troxel
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
...gayu guru geria nyamai! (No idea what it means-Dad)
dear family,
selamat hari Gawai! gawai is the biggest Dayak holiday of the year, and it started on monday (Dayak is what they call all of the indigenous tribes in malaysian borneo). i'm not exactly sure when it ends... probably just when people get really sick of being drunk 24/7. it's crazy though! dad mentioned in his email about how he ate too much. you have no idea what i've been through the last two days dad. in order to understand what we've been doing the last two days, you have to understand a bit about what gawai is. from the time i first got to east malaysia (sibu), i was hearing about how big gawai was. that was in october last year, and it has just been building up to this week. during gawai, everything shuts down, and everyone goes back to their villages. the only people left in kuching pretty much are the chinese (and even some of them choose to go on vacation). gawai is the celebration of the rice harvest i think, or at least some kind of harvest. anywho, everybody gets drunk. unfortunately, even some of the members get hammered. but since everyone is in their kampungs (villages), there really is no work for us to do. so what the missionaries have done in the past, and what we chose to do, is to go around and visit members all day. it's good, because you can meet a lot of non-members in their families, and you can help strengthen them so that they won't drink or do something stupid. it started on sunday, which is gawai eve. for about a month now, the branch leadership in all the branches here have been announcing during sacrament meeting that there would still be church on gawai eve, and that it was still a commandment to come. elder tuckfield and i usually go to at least two of the branches (because we have some investigators that can only come in the morning, and some that can only come in the afternoon), so we got to see what the damage was. the third branch, which usually has 100-130 people every week, had maybe 30 people at the most... and six of those were missionaries! our branch did a bit better, but still much less than normal. on monday, we rented a taxi van and went to one of the bigger tourist kampungs called annahries and brought all of the missionaries down there. that's when the torture all started. we met up with our branch president down there, and he took us to his grandparent's house. they brought out a ton of cookies and cakes and things. i had a lot. then he took us on a tour of the long house in the village. i got some good videos, so you'll be able to see what it was like, but as we were touring this long house, we got invited to eat twice! by the time we finished the second time, i was pretty darn full... and then president Teo (the branch president) informed us that we were going back to his grandparents for lunch. oh man, i didn't think i was going to be able to handle it... and it was only 12:00! then all of the other elders took the van back while we went with president teo to go and visit all the rest of the members. we did that ALL DAY! and every house we went to had a meal prepared for us. now, don't get me wrong, i love curry and rice, but when you have eight meals of curry and rice in one day, it gets a little bit gross. fortunately though, they mixed up the meat. on monday alone, i ate chicken, beef, flying squirrel, cat, fish, wild boar, and goat. i weighed myself the on sunday morning, at i weighed in at 179. when i weighed myself on monday night after returning home, i weighed 190! oh my heavens! it was unbelievable how much i packed down. and i didn't even throw up! tuesday was pretty much the same as monday, but we got a few lessons in, and i only ate 4 or 5 times.
apart from the gawai madness, we also had a baptism! her name is catherine and she is awesome. she lives with her husband's family, who are really strong members too, so she's got a really strong support system. her husband is a bit of a bum though, even though he's got a baptism date. on the way home from the baptism, i was riding elder romney's bike, because mine is a heck of a lot better than his, and he had to ride a lot farther than me that day, so i swapped him. anywho, on the ride home (it was about 9:25), the bike all but fell apart. it was kind of ridable though, so i was just taking it easy, trying to get home before 9:30, when all of a sudden, i heard a bunch of barking and dog paws moving quickly on asphalt. i looked behind me, and in the darkness saw a black dog dart behind my back tire. i turned and looked down just as the little bugger took a bite for my foot. i managed to dodge him the first time, but then he came in again. i tried to go faster, but my bike just wouldn't let me. as he opened his mouth and went for my leg again, i gave him what i thought would be a well place kick in the jaws. i don't know how he did it, because i was sure that i was going to get him, but he somehow did this crazy jump dodge, whipped his head around, and clamped down on my leg. don't worry though, he only tore my pants pretty bad, but i wasn't injured. talk about tender mercies! after that, he gave up on me and went for elder tuckfield. i think he was tired though, so he didn't put up much of a fight with him. but now i've got a huge hole in my best pair of slacks! poop.
we've got two baptisms this week, both of which will be great leaders in the church in a few years, im sure. and we're having the baptism on the beach! i love malaysia.
it's good to hear that everything went well with whitney's graduation. i hope she enjoyed it. i can't really remember mine, but i remember the all night party was a blast. how was yours, whitney? email me and tell me about everything.
well, i think that's pretty much it. thanks for checking up on the shoes for me. i really appreciate it. stay safe now, ya hear? i love you all.
love,
elder troxel
ps- i got an email from Kelvin today (the one who i'm giving the scriptures to) and he's sending in his papers next week! that's so awesome!
selamat hari Gawai! gawai is the biggest Dayak holiday of the year, and it started on monday (Dayak is what they call all of the indigenous tribes in malaysian borneo). i'm not exactly sure when it ends... probably just when people get really sick of being drunk 24/7. it's crazy though! dad mentioned in his email about how he ate too much. you have no idea what i've been through the last two days dad. in order to understand what we've been doing the last two days, you have to understand a bit about what gawai is. from the time i first got to east malaysia (sibu), i was hearing about how big gawai was. that was in october last year, and it has just been building up to this week. during gawai, everything shuts down, and everyone goes back to their villages. the only people left in kuching pretty much are the chinese (and even some of them choose to go on vacation). gawai is the celebration of the rice harvest i think, or at least some kind of harvest. anywho, everybody gets drunk. unfortunately, even some of the members get hammered. but since everyone is in their kampungs (villages), there really is no work for us to do. so what the missionaries have done in the past, and what we chose to do, is to go around and visit members all day. it's good, because you can meet a lot of non-members in their families, and you can help strengthen them so that they won't drink or do something stupid. it started on sunday, which is gawai eve. for about a month now, the branch leadership in all the branches here have been announcing during sacrament meeting that there would still be church on gawai eve, and that it was still a commandment to come. elder tuckfield and i usually go to at least two of the branches (because we have some investigators that can only come in the morning, and some that can only come in the afternoon), so we got to see what the damage was. the third branch, which usually has 100-130 people every week, had maybe 30 people at the most... and six of those were missionaries! our branch did a bit better, but still much less than normal. on monday, we rented a taxi van and went to one of the bigger tourist kampungs called annahries and brought all of the missionaries down there. that's when the torture all started. we met up with our branch president down there, and he took us to his grandparent's house. they brought out a ton of cookies and cakes and things. i had a lot. then he took us on a tour of the long house in the village. i got some good videos, so you'll be able to see what it was like, but as we were touring this long house, we got invited to eat twice! by the time we finished the second time, i was pretty darn full... and then president Teo (the branch president) informed us that we were going back to his grandparents for lunch. oh man, i didn't think i was going to be able to handle it... and it was only 12:00! then all of the other elders took the van back while we went with president teo to go and visit all the rest of the members. we did that ALL DAY! and every house we went to had a meal prepared for us. now, don't get me wrong, i love curry and rice, but when you have eight meals of curry and rice in one day, it gets a little bit gross. fortunately though, they mixed up the meat. on monday alone, i ate chicken, beef, flying squirrel, cat, fish, wild boar, and goat. i weighed myself the on sunday morning, at i weighed in at 179. when i weighed myself on monday night after returning home, i weighed 190! oh my heavens! it was unbelievable how much i packed down. and i didn't even throw up! tuesday was pretty much the same as monday, but we got a few lessons in, and i only ate 4 or 5 times.
apart from the gawai madness, we also had a baptism! her name is catherine and she is awesome. she lives with her husband's family, who are really strong members too, so she's got a really strong support system. her husband is a bit of a bum though, even though he's got a baptism date. on the way home from the baptism, i was riding elder romney's bike, because mine is a heck of a lot better than his, and he had to ride a lot farther than me that day, so i swapped him. anywho, on the ride home (it was about 9:25), the bike all but fell apart. it was kind of ridable though, so i was just taking it easy, trying to get home before 9:30, when all of a sudden, i heard a bunch of barking and dog paws moving quickly on asphalt. i looked behind me, and in the darkness saw a black dog dart behind my back tire. i turned and looked down just as the little bugger took a bite for my foot. i managed to dodge him the first time, but then he came in again. i tried to go faster, but my bike just wouldn't let me. as he opened his mouth and went for my leg again, i gave him what i thought would be a well place kick in the jaws. i don't know how he did it, because i was sure that i was going to get him, but he somehow did this crazy jump dodge, whipped his head around, and clamped down on my leg. don't worry though, he only tore my pants pretty bad, but i wasn't injured. talk about tender mercies! after that, he gave up on me and went for elder tuckfield. i think he was tired though, so he didn't put up much of a fight with him. but now i've got a huge hole in my best pair of slacks! poop.
we've got two baptisms this week, both of which will be great leaders in the church in a few years, im sure. and we're having the baptism on the beach! i love malaysia.
it's good to hear that everything went well with whitney's graduation. i hope she enjoyed it. i can't really remember mine, but i remember the all night party was a blast. how was yours, whitney? email me and tell me about everything.
well, i think that's pretty much it. thanks for checking up on the shoes for me. i really appreciate it. stay safe now, ya hear? i love you all.
love,
elder troxel
ps- i got an email from Kelvin today (the one who i'm giving the scriptures to) and he's sending in his papers next week! that's so awesome!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Surprise!
dear family,
don't worry, i'm not being apostate. since myldsmail was down for the last two days, we get to come read our emails today. i sent you an email on wednesday, so this one won't be very long...
i can't believe whitney graduates today! oh man. but don't worry sis, things after high school are SO much better and more fun. trust me. even though old friends and other people might move on, you'll meet a ton of new people. i'm proud of you girl! keep a stiff upper lip and don't be afraid. you've got a lot of big decisions ahead of you, but don't worry about anything. just make everything you do a matter of prayer. remember what it says in D&C 6:36 (and also on my missionary plaque), "look unto me in every thought. doubt not, fear not." you have got so much potential whitney! oh, the places you'll go! you're awesome. have a wonderful graduation and pardy hardy!
anywho, you had some questions that i would love to answer:
1. (Do you get reimbursed for all the money you spend?) not yet... but i'm really hoping that will happen soon. the new office couple is a little bit slow at getting things done, because they're still trying to get their feet under them. i think it will be this week though.
2. (You mentioned that you thought your companion will be an assistant soon. Has that happened yet?) once again, not yet. he won't go there until june 15 (but i'm not supposed to know that). i'm excited to know who my new companion will be. this summer will be nuts because there is a ton of leadership going home, and i'll then be one of the oldest zone leaders. it'll be fun to see what happens.
3. (How are things going with your zone? Are they catching the vision of what is truly possible?) things with the zone are ok. we came up with a sweet thing called the "July Jihad." a jihad is a religious war, or a crusade. we talked with our district leaders, and had them set district standards or goals for the next six weeks, leading up to july. if we accomplish all of the short term goals that we set, july will have an explosion of baptisms. the highest amount that this zone has had in one month for this year is 15. that's ok... not particularly good... but the goal is to at the very least double that number. we've only got 5 companionship's, so everyone is going to have to work really hard. but i'm excited for it.
so, everything is still going really well here. i hope everyone is still doing well. take pictures of whitney's graduation for me. i want to see her.
i love you all.
elder troxel
don't worry, i'm not being apostate. since myldsmail was down for the last two days, we get to come read our emails today. i sent you an email on wednesday, so this one won't be very long...
i can't believe whitney graduates today! oh man. but don't worry sis, things after high school are SO much better and more fun. trust me. even though old friends and other people might move on, you'll meet a ton of new people. i'm proud of you girl! keep a stiff upper lip and don't be afraid. you've got a lot of big decisions ahead of you, but don't worry about anything. just make everything you do a matter of prayer. remember what it says in D&C 6:36 (and also on my missionary plaque), "look unto me in every thought. doubt not, fear not." you have got so much potential whitney! oh, the places you'll go! you're awesome. have a wonderful graduation and pardy hardy!
anywho, you had some questions that i would love to answer:
1. (Do you get reimbursed for all the money you spend?) not yet... but i'm really hoping that will happen soon. the new office couple is a little bit slow at getting things done, because they're still trying to get their feet under them. i think it will be this week though.
2. (You mentioned that you thought your companion will be an assistant soon. Has that happened yet?) once again, not yet. he won't go there until june 15 (but i'm not supposed to know that). i'm excited to know who my new companion will be. this summer will be nuts because there is a ton of leadership going home, and i'll then be one of the oldest zone leaders. it'll be fun to see what happens.
3. (How are things going with your zone? Are they catching the vision of what is truly possible?) things with the zone are ok. we came up with a sweet thing called the "July Jihad." a jihad is a religious war, or a crusade. we talked with our district leaders, and had them set district standards or goals for the next six weeks, leading up to july. if we accomplish all of the short term goals that we set, july will have an explosion of baptisms. the highest amount that this zone has had in one month for this year is 15. that's ok... not particularly good... but the goal is to at the very least double that number. we've only got 5 companionship's, so everyone is going to have to work really hard. but i'm excited for it.
so, everything is still going really well here. i hope everyone is still doing well. take pictures of whitney's graduation for me. i want to see her.
i love you all.
elder troxel
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Hey, Hey, Hey
Dear Blog followers,
We are sorry about the delay in Jordan's email, but we did not realize that he sent this to a different account. We knew he was having trouble with his ldsmail account as it looked like he hadn't open any of his emails. We found his email today and feel much better that he is safe and sound.
Mom and Dad Troxel
dear family,
i'm writing this on gmail right now because myldsmail is down (what are the odds?). anywho, i haven't gotten to read your emails yet, but i'll keep trying to get on to myldsmail. but i hope everything is going well. i've had an excellent week. oh yeah, before i forget again, i need to ask you something... i've heard that the shoe brand "Ecco" has two year warranties on all of their shoes. do you think you could check on that for me? because my eccos are pretty shot. both soles are split right in half and their pretty torn up from the bikes, but if the rumors are true, then they should just be able to send a brand new pair. i've heard of missionaries doing that before, and i'm not sure if either pair of my shoes are going to last much more that 3 more months, so if you could check on that i would be very grateful.
this week has been a good one, at least for elder tuckfield and i. we were able to come out of zone conference and do some really good work the rest of the week. i wasn't very pleased with some of the other companionship's in the zone, however. elder tuckfield and i have talked about it though and we've got some good ideas on how to try and motivate the zone and get things going again though. we've got some elders who are getting really close to going home, and they've all but stopped doing missionary work all together. if nothing else though, it's a good example for me of what not to do when i get to that point...
i told you when i talked to you on the phone about how i struggle staying focused in my language study, but i've found something that has snapped me back into focus... i'm learning Jawi! jawi is the traditional written language of malay. it's not used very much, but it's way cool looking because it uses a lot of the arabic alphabet. so the last few days i've spent learning how to read and write the jawi alphabet. i'm planning on writing a letter to chelsie today, and i'll write some jawi words in there so that you can see what it looks like. it's awesome. i'm super pumped about it.
so we've got some really excellent investigators right now. we'll be having a baptism for a lady named Catherine this saturday. she's married and pregnant with her second child. she's 17 years old! ibans are crazy! i don't know if i ever told you, but i baptized an iban sister in sibu who was married when she was 12 and had her first child at 13! that is just gross. but that's what they're all about here. anywho, catherine is really good. she's been taught for along time, but is just now getting baptized. she's got a really good testimony though and she's going to be a good member. we were supposed to have a baptism for another guy named lawrence this week, but he's had trouble stopping smoking, so we've had to push him back a bit. we met with him yesterday and had him write down all the reasons that make him want to smoke. then we had him write down what he needs to do to avoid all of those things. i think it really helped him to see that is possible. the most important thing that we stressed with him was about prayer. he's been smoking for 8 years, and he's only 20. how crazy is that? when i was 12, i don't think i'd ever even seen someone smoking! geez.
anywho, our area is doing great, and the weeks keep flying by. it's a good thing, because i still can't get into myldsmail and it's looking like i'll have to wait a week to read the emails. andrew is probably coming close to having single digits in weeks left! and whoa, whitney is all but graduated! let me know how college is, sis.
anywho, i'm still healthy and happy. everything is great. i hope everyone is good back home. i love you all.
-elder troxel
We are sorry about the delay in Jordan's email, but we did not realize that he sent this to a different account. We knew he was having trouble with his ldsmail account as it looked like he hadn't open any of his emails. We found his email today and feel much better that he is safe and sound.
Mom and Dad Troxel
dear family,
i'm writing this on gmail right now because myldsmail is down (what are the odds?). anywho, i haven't gotten to read your emails yet, but i'll keep trying to get on to myldsmail. but i hope everything is going well. i've had an excellent week. oh yeah, before i forget again, i need to ask you something... i've heard that the shoe brand "Ecco" has two year warranties on all of their shoes. do you think you could check on that for me? because my eccos are pretty shot. both soles are split right in half and their pretty torn up from the bikes, but if the rumors are true, then they should just be able to send a brand new pair. i've heard of missionaries doing that before, and i'm not sure if either pair of my shoes are going to last much more that 3 more months, so if you could check on that i would be very grateful.
this week has been a good one, at least for elder tuckfield and i. we were able to come out of zone conference and do some really good work the rest of the week. i wasn't very pleased with some of the other companionship's in the zone, however. elder tuckfield and i have talked about it though and we've got some good ideas on how to try and motivate the zone and get things going again though. we've got some elders who are getting really close to going home, and they've all but stopped doing missionary work all together. if nothing else though, it's a good example for me of what not to do when i get to that point...
i told you when i talked to you on the phone about how i struggle staying focused in my language study, but i've found something that has snapped me back into focus... i'm learning Jawi! jawi is the traditional written language of malay. it's not used very much, but it's way cool looking because it uses a lot of the arabic alphabet. so the last few days i've spent learning how to read and write the jawi alphabet. i'm planning on writing a letter to chelsie today, and i'll write some jawi words in there so that you can see what it looks like. it's awesome. i'm super pumped about it.
so we've got some really excellent investigators right now. we'll be having a baptism for a lady named Catherine this saturday. she's married and pregnant with her second child. she's 17 years old! ibans are crazy! i don't know if i ever told you, but i baptized an iban sister in sibu who was married when she was 12 and had her first child at 13! that is just gross. but that's what they're all about here. anywho, catherine is really good. she's been taught for along time, but is just now getting baptized. she's got a really good testimony though and she's going to be a good member. we were supposed to have a baptism for another guy named lawrence this week, but he's had trouble stopping smoking, so we've had to push him back a bit. we met with him yesterday and had him write down all the reasons that make him want to smoke. then we had him write down what he needs to do to avoid all of those things. i think it really helped him to see that is possible. the most important thing that we stressed with him was about prayer. he's been smoking for 8 years, and he's only 20. how crazy is that? when i was 12, i don't think i'd ever even seen someone smoking! geez.
anywho, our area is doing great, and the weeks keep flying by. it's a good thing, because i still can't get into myldsmail and it's looking like i'll have to wait a week to read the emails. andrew is probably coming close to having single digits in weeks left! and whoa, whitney is all but graduated! let me know how college is, sis.
anywho, i'm still healthy and happy. everything is great. i hope everyone is good back home. i love you all.
-elder troxel
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The Packages Arrive!!
dear family,
whoa, so whitney is graduating from seminary is she? did i ever graduate from seminary? i don't remember it ever happening. i hope so. so whitney is coming up on her last week in high school, right? i'm with you mom, when did i get so old? good work though whitney.
so this week has been really busy with zone stuff. today and tomorrow are zone conference, and tonight we're having a mondo-Barbecue. it's going to be awesome, but it's been a pain in the bum to put together. mostly the pain in my bum is coming from ripping so much money out of my wallet to pay for things i think. it'll be awesome though.
so guess what! all of the packages arrived! i got the deodorant package last friday. then i got a call from someone in singapore that my package arrived there... THEN i got a call from KK saying that my easter package finally arrived there! i'll be lucky if that one ever reaches me, but it's good to know that it's feeding missionaries and that it arrived! so i think we're still at 100%. thank you very much for the deodorant and the beef jerky. it was delicious. the beef jerky... not the deodorant.
you said that whitney made a dress! apa hal-bah? since when could she make sweet stuff like that?! that's awesome! i want some pictures. i've recently learned how to make a hammock, and i'm three rows into 60 rows of an awesome king sized hammock. it'll be so sweet when i finish.
so, kind of funny story. we were teaching a family last night, and after we finished the lesson, we were just drinking some Milo with them and chatting it up, trying to get to know them better. anywho, somehow we got on the topic of who was going to get married first. they picked me, because they said that i was more handsome. haha, people here are so ruthlessly honest. if you're fat, they'll just come straight out and ask you why you are/how did you become so fat. so if i'm like that when i get home, forgive me, it's just my culture. they said that i wasn't sentimental though. apa hal? i'm sentimental, right?
anywho, i don't really have anymore updates. the work is awesome as always. the zone is doing well. thanks again for the packages. you're all awesome. i love you all.
love,
elder troxel
whoa, so whitney is graduating from seminary is she? did i ever graduate from seminary? i don't remember it ever happening. i hope so. so whitney is coming up on her last week in high school, right? i'm with you mom, when did i get so old? good work though whitney.
so this week has been really busy with zone stuff. today and tomorrow are zone conference, and tonight we're having a mondo-Barbecue. it's going to be awesome, but it's been a pain in the bum to put together. mostly the pain in my bum is coming from ripping so much money out of my wallet to pay for things i think. it'll be awesome though.
so guess what! all of the packages arrived! i got the deodorant package last friday. then i got a call from someone in singapore that my package arrived there... THEN i got a call from KK saying that my easter package finally arrived there! i'll be lucky if that one ever reaches me, but it's good to know that it's feeding missionaries and that it arrived! so i think we're still at 100%. thank you very much for the deodorant and the beef jerky. it was delicious. the beef jerky... not the deodorant.
you said that whitney made a dress! apa hal-bah? since when could she make sweet stuff like that?! that's awesome! i want some pictures. i've recently learned how to make a hammock, and i'm three rows into 60 rows of an awesome king sized hammock. it'll be so sweet when i finish.
so, kind of funny story. we were teaching a family last night, and after we finished the lesson, we were just drinking some Milo with them and chatting it up, trying to get to know them better. anywho, somehow we got on the topic of who was going to get married first. they picked me, because they said that i was more handsome. haha, people here are so ruthlessly honest. if you're fat, they'll just come straight out and ask you why you are/how did you become so fat. so if i'm like that when i get home, forgive me, it's just my culture. they said that i wasn't sentimental though. apa hal? i'm sentimental, right?
anywho, i don't really have anymore updates. the work is awesome as always. the zone is doing well. thanks again for the packages. you're all awesome. i love you all.
love,
elder troxel
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Selamat Hari Ibu! (Safe/Happy Mother's Day!)
dear family,
i don't really have all that much to say, because we just talked a couple of days ago... but i'm still truckin. it was awesome to get to talk to you all. everybody sounds like they're doing great. everybody sounded pretty much the same. did i sound the same? it was fun.
so i just got an email from Owey! apparently he's playing ball up at the U! oh man, that's awesome. that really makes me want to play again. but he sounds like he's doing well. i can't believe he's been home for 4 months! geez. anywho, the week thus far has been really good. we've set a few more baptism dates, and had some really good appointments. we're really busy these days, and it's getting to the point where we're having to go on splits to see everybody who wants to learn, which is a very good thing. thank you for your prayers and support. um, i haven't checked the mail since i talked to you, so i don't know if i've gotten the package yet or not. i should probably do that soon.
we've got zone conference coming up next week, so we're really busy trying to get that ready. it's a lot bigger here than in KK, so there's more to do. i'm way excited though, because we're playing football for our activity! i love that game. we're also going to be having a big barbecue which is going to be awesome, but it's pretty time consuming to get everything together for it.
oh, about those pictures... i don't think i even had pictures 203-242 on that disk. i made the CD, and then i continued to take pictures with that card, so i made DVD with all of the pictures on that card before i deleted it. i've got backup CDs of all my pictures that i keep, along with sending them to you, so hopefully somewhere i've still got all of the pictures. it'll be fun for dad to come and see all of that stuff in person.
anywho, i don't have much more to say... i'll tell you my awesome almost pooping pants story some other time. maybe in february.
love,
elder troxel
i don't really have all that much to say, because we just talked a couple of days ago... but i'm still truckin. it was awesome to get to talk to you all. everybody sounds like they're doing great. everybody sounded pretty much the same. did i sound the same? it was fun.
so i just got an email from Owey! apparently he's playing ball up at the U! oh man, that's awesome. that really makes me want to play again. but he sounds like he's doing well. i can't believe he's been home for 4 months! geez. anywho, the week thus far has been really good. we've set a few more baptism dates, and had some really good appointments. we're really busy these days, and it's getting to the point where we're having to go on splits to see everybody who wants to learn, which is a very good thing. thank you for your prayers and support. um, i haven't checked the mail since i talked to you, so i don't know if i've gotten the package yet or not. i should probably do that soon.
we've got zone conference coming up next week, so we're really busy trying to get that ready. it's a lot bigger here than in KK, so there's more to do. i'm way excited though, because we're playing football for our activity! i love that game. we're also going to be having a big barbecue which is going to be awesome, but it's pretty time consuming to get everything together for it.
oh, about those pictures... i don't think i even had pictures 203-242 on that disk. i made the CD, and then i continued to take pictures with that card, so i made DVD with all of the pictures on that card before i deleted it. i've got backup CDs of all my pictures that i keep, along with sending them to you, so hopefully somewhere i've still got all of the pictures. it'll be fun for dad to come and see all of that stuff in person.
anywho, i don't have much more to say... i'll tell you my awesome almost pooping pants story some other time. maybe in february.
love,
elder troxel
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