First week in Singapore

Well this week has been so crazy that i dont even know where to start. honestly. i cant even describe it here. Its jungle and its crazy. But until i taught a couple lessons, i couldnt quite understand why malaysia is a 3rd world  country. I mean, it obviously looks super poor and everything, but not third world. Or so i thought. I thought that until i got in to the homes of the people. Its amazing how they live here. If someone in america was to live like the people do here, they would be considered homeless. Every family i have seen literally lives in a 12x12 box. And thats where the WHOLE family lives. Its amazing to see how an entire family lives in a room smaller than any room ive ever had growing up. And they are so happy. so happy. A lot more happy than most everyone in America. And think about this. How many people in America do you that have ANYTHING and EVERYTHING they would ever want, but are still unhappy? The people here have NOTHING and are still so great. and so happy.
It just goes to show that happiness doesnt come from material things. or money. or from things you can buy. true happiness and joy really does only come from family, and keeping the commandments.
So ive had already taught a bunch of lessons. We have like 15 investigators or so right now, and they all want to be baptized. its really great. Last night i got the chance to introduce the Book of Mormon to a guy named Robert. It was really a neat experience. Im already starting to understand the language a lot better and be able to hear what people are saying to me. I can hold a regular conversation decdently well. We teach a lot of Mothers that have a couple kids, but no dad. Its sad to see how the men treat their wives around here. We are teaching this recent convert right now whos name is Singar. She has a little boy who is about 2 years old and is pregnant as well. Her husband just walked out on her and married some other lady. I dont get how you can do that, but i guess it is legal here. And she is so sad. Its just crazy to see the way people live here. Her husband told her that he doesnt want her or the kids anymore.  Super sad.
Well, people say that you should expect miracles on your mission, and already witnessed my fair share. This week, me and Elder Polley went to go look for new investigators to teach. we do what we call "faith finding" We pray and set a goal for what type of  family we think we are going to find a teach. We even pick out one street that we knock doors to find that family.  So we prayed that we would find a house with a young couple with either one or two kids that will want to learn about the gospel. We rode down the street until we felt impressed to stop at a particular home. I felt impressed to stop at this one house. We went and knocked on their door, and a young mother answered and invited us in pretty easy. He husband was in the other room with their baby. We sat down and spoke about the gospel, and she said that she wanted to learn a lot more. That was miracle number one. When we got her number to set another appointment with her, we went down the road further until we found another house we felt impressed to stop at. We walked up some stairs to the door we thought we should knock on. We didnt even need to knock. the door we felt impressed to go to was already open, and there was another young mother outside with her child.  she said she wanted to learn from us, and invited us in. As we talked to her about baptism, she immediately said that she wanted to be baptized. Shes already got a date picked out, and we havent even finished teaching her the first lesson yet.
So thats my two miracles right there. We prayed to find a young couple with one or 2 kids. We only went to two doors that day. And not only found one couple, We found two. Coincidence.......i think not. haha
Well there has been some other fun things i have done just since being her. Last night i ate some interesting food......Chicken feet, and chicken head. Yes, the whole head. Even the brains. it was pretty weird. not gonna lie. Ate the neck too. Elder Polley kinda set me up. He thought it would be pretty funny. He asked one of the members to get some of that for me to eat, becuase he knew that i hadnt ever had it before. So then last night we go over to this members house, and they have chicken for us. But.....its the feet and the head. Elder Polley told me that they usually dont give the head to people, and that if i didnt eat it that it would be rude. I asked the membe if that was true and he said yes. After i ate the chicken head Elder Polley started laughing pretty hard. I asked him why he was laughing. He said that they barely even eat the chicken head. They dont usually give it to be people. They give it to their dogs. So he didnt really lie to me. He said that they dont usually give it to people. And thats the truth. hahahahah.
So i feel like i could just go on and on with things that have happened this week. Its been really great. haha. I dont think ive ever gotten so many comments for being big. Litteraly eveyone i see looks up at me with really wide eyes and says "ahhhh kamu besar!" which just means "Your big". its pretty funny. One time we were sitting down teaching a lesson to a recent convert family, and we asked them what my name would be if i were a malaysian. They said King Kong. It was super funny. But for real though, i havent seen anyone that even comes up to my shoulders here. I feel huge. They are all maybe 5 feet tall. I might have seen one or 2 that are like 5 foot 2. But thats about it.
Love,
Elder Trotter

Off to Sibu

 Well, ill just tell you a little about Malaysia now. So i flew into a city called Kuching, and from there, I took a small plane to my area, Sibu. You should look all this up on google maps, so you know where i live! So i got in to Sibu, and the airline lost all my luggage. EVERYTHING. so that was just last night. So now, i have absolutely nothing and i have no idea when ill get my bag back. If i ever do. It kinda sucks, but im trying to be positive about it. Last night, when i got in, we went to a grocery store to get some food. Food here is really cheap, but SUPER weird. I didnt even know what to get, or what would be good. But there was a music store by the grocery store! and i got to play guitar and drums for a bit! it was soooo great!!!! there is another Elder I live with that plays guitar, so we played music together. It was really great, because i havent played guitatr for over two months. And thats super long for me, and i was missing it a lot. Well this country is definately different than home. thats for sure. Im not really quite sure what to think yet becuase i havent seen a whole lot of it.  But i do know that we dont have a church building. We just meet in some rented building somewhere. Haha.  Me and My companion have to teach a mission prep class tomorrow. That will be interesting. I hope my malay is pretty good.
SO  singapore was pretty great. Its a really nice city. I was there for only two days for training, and meeting everyone. And then flew out here. When we were there, we took a lot of public transportation everywhere. They have a really convenient Subway system throughout the whole city. I think I saw some of the nicest cars that i have seen in a while. It was pretty cool. There is a lot of English there too. SO it was pretty easy to get around.
My new companion is super cool. He is from Arizona and his name is Elder Polley. He is pretty laid back, and more relaxed than Elder Steadman. Im glad i got him as a companion. We both kinda have the same sense of humor, and like to be pretty sarcastic. Which is good. He said that he used to rope cattle and stuff back home, and was kinda a cowboy. I wouldnt have guessed that though. He just seems like a normal guy to me. Thats pretty cool. At least i know hes not a pretty boy. I couldnt deal with that.

 Thats about all thats happened since i got here. Well its been a lot of stuff, but i dont really know how to write about everything. My P-day is Wednesday.  Oh ya, not using toilet paper has been kinda weird. You pretty much just use a little shower head to clean everything up. The challenge is to do that without getting water EVERYwhere. hahah. its pretty tough. But i will probably get a lot better at it. Also, The shower is just the bathroom!!! its weird. You have the loilet and the sink, and the shower head on the wall. And the whole bathroom is tile. I Dont really know how to describe it. Maybe i cant take a picture and just send it. Anyway, thats about all. I got to go bike shopping now! love you! dont forget to write back!!!
Love
Elder Trotter

Arrived Safely in SINGAPORE!!!!!

Hey. Ive been in singapore for a couple days now. Its crazy. Im in the airport now heading out to east malaysia for my first area!!!! im going to Sibu. im so excited. My companions name is Elder Polley, and it seems like we are going to get along great!! Sibu is exactly the place i wanted to be. its going to be awesome. no one speaks a word of english there. We were largely with a native tribe called the Ibons. They speak a little  bit of a different dialect than just regular Malay, so it should be really interesting. I guess they are very receptive to the gospel, so i am excited to be able to teach them. The area i am going has been an area that only zone leaders can go. Im the first Elder to be in this area that is  not  zone leader, let alone a greenie, in 3 years. How cool is that? i guess the lord has a lot planned for me, and trusts in me a lot. Im just glad to be here.
Ive been sweating since i walked off th plane. thats no lie. You walk outside, and its like walking in to a sauna. but im doing alright. I will be able to manage. Sibu is pretty much just surrounded my jungle, and there are a lot of poor people that live in shacks. There are a lot of people that live in Kampungs. (villages) and dont really have anything. Im super excited to get out there. haha.
Go ahead an look up Sibu on google maps so you can get a pretty good idea of where i am at.
So there is a couple of natives Elders that i have met. Ive had full of conversations with them in Malay, and understood them almost as if it were english. That makes me feel a lot better. I hope my language is good enough to be able to teach adequately enough. But im sure the Lord will bless me, and give me any help or strength that i need. Anyway, gotta catch my flight now. Love you all!!!  I will be able to write a lot more about everything on P-day. love you!

Dear all-
 well this is the last p-day i have in the MTC. I will be leaving next monday at 4 oclock!!!!!!!! im super excited!  We got our travel plans last thursday and it was super exciting. I go from SLC to LA. and have like a 5 hour layover. Then from there we go to Taiwan. super cool. Its kinda of dissapointing cuz our layover in taiwan is only like an hourl. I was really looking forward to eating at every legit chinese place there was in the airport. i guess thats not going to happen. i LOVE chinese food, but i guess ill just have to pick one. And then from Taiwan we go to Singapore. I cant believe its already here.  Ive been out for 2 months already. In one sense it seems like ive been in the MTC for my whole life, and in the other sense it seems like i just got here.  So we will go to Singapore and sleep. And then the next day we assigned out senior companion and trainer. Then i think we go out and buy anything that we dont have that we need, and then we ship out to our area. Im super excited to be speaking the language, and actually have real investigators to teach and affect.
So about mail- DONT WRITE ANY DEAR ELDERS PAST SUNDAY NIGHT. if you do, i wont get them. but....that only leaves the rest of this week for letters....so write as much as you can!!! it takes 2 weeks for a letter to get to singapore! and i really wanna hear from EVERYONE before i leave. so please write me sometime this week! After this upcoming week, you can send me letters in Singapore. Like i said, they take like two weeks to get there, so i probably wont be able to reply back for a little while, but i still would love to hear form everyone as much as possible!!! Make sure you address it to Jake Trotter. DO NOT PUT  "ELDER" in front of my name. So here is the new address that you can write me letters at.

JAKE TROTTER
253 BUKIT TIMAH ROAD 4TH FLOOR
SINGAPORE 259690

Thanks for all the letters and mail to everyone that i have gotten them from already. getting mail is the greatest!

So also this week i finished the Book of Mormon!!! its was super cool. I had a goal to read the whole book when i got in the MTC. So i started reading it about a week in to my mission, and i ended with about a week left. it felt good to read the whole book that quick. It took me about 6 weeks. I read at about the speed of a sloth, that was the quickest ive ever done it. haha. I can thank my dad for that. But the scriptures have had a lot more meaning to me since ive been on my mission than they ever have before. Ive known the BOM really well for a long portion of my life, and all the stories and verses and everything, but this time they seemed to have more personal meaning to me. The whole Book of Alma seems like it was written for me. That whole book is on missionary work, and service, and everything that im going to be doing these next two years. it was really great to get that much out of it.

Well thats about it for this week. Next time i write my email will be when im in Singapore! it will be great! and i Cant wait! ill be sure to tell everyone how everything went.

Dengan Kasih,
Elder Trotter

Was so excited to get a letter and pictures from Jake today.  He is doing wonderful and of course said to keep the letters coming.  Here are the pictures he sent and the description he gave of each.

The Church is true in every country and in every language!

 This is when all of us Elders went to the furthest corner of the MTC during the BYU vs. Utah football game.  The field is close enough that you can hear the announcer.  It was awesome!  Even though BYU got crushed!  But this is all of us trying to hear what was going on.

This is me and my buddy Elder Brown.  He isn't my companion, but is going to Malaysia with me.  We room together here in the MTC.  This when we thought he might be able to hear the BYU vs Utah game a little better if we got him up a little higher.  It didn't really work, but made a good picture!

This was right when I opened your box of chips that you sent me.  I was so excited.  I was freaking out pretty good.  Haha.  Thank you so much for sending them!  Seriously though, look at how happy I was.  I look like a little kid!

 I was so excited that I just had to take a ton of picture with me and my chips.  Look how big my smile is haha!

 A whole box. FULL OF THEM!

 First chip! Success!

 This is me and a couple of my buddies in front of the Provo temple giving our best "model pose"

Thought you'd like this

Dear All
Well this is Elder Trotter comin at ya with another summary of what happened this week! haha. Well first off i think in the headlining news we had General conference! who was stoked for that?! cuz I know i was!! i never really been exciting about conference like that before. It was great. In the MTC we obviously watch all the sessions of Conference, and it was cool to be able to get that much advice and knowledge about what we need to be doing to make our lives better. Im not sure if its just cuz i was listening for missionary stuff, but i felt like there was a lot of talks about missionary work. Elder Hollands talk in priesthood session was so cool. I really like the way he talks and id have to say that hes probably my favorite apostle.  I think if i were a way better speaker, and way more spiritual, i would probably talk like him. He doesnt mess around or beat around the bush, he just says it like it is. My kinda style haha.
So my days left in the MTC are getting fewer. YAY! hahaha. that sounds so bad. but for real. the MTC is a really great place, and the spirit here is amazing. But ive never been more excited to get out of a place than i am to get out of here. haha. Im still hanging in there tho. im not sure if i just really wanna get out of here, or if i just really want to get to Malaysia and get to work. Speaking of Malaysia, I will be there in two weeks! i only have one more P-day after this! so if there was anything you might have been thinking about sending me...you might wanna get on top of it ;) haha.
So i guess it takes about 2 weeks for conference to get translated. so I will be in Malaysia when that gets there, and i will get to hear it twice. Pretty excited for that. Im not sure if i will listen to it in Malay or english. I might listen to the whole thing in malay just to get better at the language. One of our teachers was hired by the church to translate. And i guess you can make quite a bit of money doing that. So i know i might be a little ahead of the game, but i might think about doing that when i get home from my mission. Or work at the MTC. that would be sweet too.
There wasnt a whole lot of things that really happened this week to be honest. Its just kind of like "get down and dirty with getting to work so you will be ready to go to Malaysia" time right now. Ive just been super busy studying and speaking the language as much as possible.  Ive been reading the Book of Mormon everyday quite a bit. I started when i got in to the MTC and I am in 3 Nephi chapter 4 right now. I wanna be able to finish it before i go. I think ill be able to do that pretty easy. I love reading the Book of Mormon. Its pretty cool. Even if it wasnt a religious book at all, it would be a pretty sweet and intricate novel. The stories in it are great.
We have been teaching our "investigators" (our teachers) since we got in to the MTC. But yesterday was the baptisimal date for one of our fake investigators. So that was cool. Now we get to pretend like she just got baptised and teach her all the lessons again. it sounds pretty stupid typing it out about our fake investigator, but when teaching, it doesnt seem so fake. and the spirit is still super strong.
Anyway, thats about all that happened this week. I think i will send like one more email next week, and then after that, I will be in MALAYSIA!!! anyway, super stoked for that. until next week-
Dengan Kasih,
Elder Trotter