hey everyone!
sorry i havent written anything for a while. but things have just been same old same old lately. haha. actually, i guess not tho. my companion got hit by a motorcyle this week. but dont worry, everything is ok with him. but it was pretty crazy. me and him were riding side by side and then out of no where this guys riding a motorcyle just took him out. it was nuts. it was like a video game or a dream or something. it didnt seem real. anyway, so obviously my companion was down. and the guy on the motorcycle fell too. and slid for about 30 ish yards. he was going pretty fast. anyway, i made sure that my companion was ok and everything, and then i checked on the guy. he was ok too. but both of them had some pretty gnarly road rash. then, the guy tried to get up and pick his bike up like he was gonna do a hit and run. and i wasnt gonna let that happen. haha. and i have never actually yelled at someone in malay before. except for that time. haha. it was pretty funny. i kinda surprised myself actually how mean i was to him. i started yelling at him, and i really scared him. here he is, a poor little iban guy, and here i am a huge white guy yelling at him. so ya, he was scared. anyway, needless to say. he just say on the ground, and was really afraid to get up and go anywhere.
anyway, my companion and i went to the hospital and he was just fine. he just had some scrapes. seriously tho, i saw that motorcyle hit him, and i KNOW that he was watched over. no joke. the speed that the motorcyle hit him, he should be wayy messed up. i thought for sure that it would have broken some bones in his body. but nothing. i was amazed.
anyway, the guy didnt really want us to pay us anything. but then again, i scared him. haha. and i told him that if he didnt pay us (just for the damages to my companions bike) that we would report everything to the police. (no the police didnt come. they never come for anything. you have to pay them to come) anyway, he agreed to pay for the damages to the bike. so we met him at the bike shop the next day. and when we started getting the bike checked out, it was looking like it was gonna be pretty expensive. and me and companion started to feel really bad for the guy. i mean, the guy is just a poor malaysian that has nothing. for real. ya, it was his fault. no question. but still that doesnt change the fact that we felt bad for him. he just got married, and had a kid, and has a new job. and he barely makes any money. i can only imagine trying to pay for his family is a struggle enough. so, in the end, we didnt really want him to pay much. so we ended up using a bunch of second hand parts and everything so he didnt have to buy them. and the only thing he ended up paying for was the labor to fix it. and even with that, we still felt bad for him. and then i sent him a text apologizing for the night before when i had yelled at him. anyway, in my attempts to be this mean, white guy that was "gonna make him pay" i think my softer side got the better of me, and i could only feel compasion for him. anyway, i guess i still have a lot to learn in this life still. anyway, i would write some more. but i gotta go. love you all
ELder Trotter

Hey everyone!!
we had to change out p day this week. no big deal. But thats why my letter is a few days late. You probably didnt even notice anyway. haha
Anyway, this last week has been pretty crazy. I have just been running around like crazy and doing missionary work as usual. This area is quite a bit different than my last one. The language, the culture. Everything. In my old area, i pretty much taught people from indonesia or the philipeans. I actually didnt really teach any native malaysians. But here, is not the same at all. The only people we teach are Iban. And Iban is a native tribe here. They have their own language. And their own culture. And its gonna take me a little to get used to. They are pretty much just jungle people. And their language is not anything close to what i learned in the MTC. But they can all speak malay too. So we still teach them in malay. But sometimes they do not understand. So i have been learning iban lately. Ya, just some weird, native, jungle dialect that they speak. But its pretty cool. And they really like it when you try to speak it with them.
anyway, i really miss tawau. A lot. seriously. I know that i will be able to have a lot of cool new experiences in my new area, but i still miss everyone so much from my old area. I feel like i will always view that as the best time in my mission. I became so close to my recent converts and members. Its gonna be really hard to get over them. They became my family while i was there. And it turns out that i actually counted on them a whole lot more than i thought. everyone there was my suppost system. i felt at home there. to be honest, if i had the choice to get on a plane right now and come home to america, or get on a plane and go to tawau, i would choose to go to tawau. Im not really quite sure what else to say....
But, i just gotta move on, and keep spreadin the gospel. This new area has brought some new experiences for me. I taught my first lesson by candlelight. a lot of people here dont have electricty. They just live in a little village that doesnt really have electricty. and so they just use candles. Also, i met a super old chinese guy with a very stereotypical looking beard. haha. So i had to get a picture with him. Also, i went to a pretty cool zoo with just a bunch of crocadiles. and i got to feed the crocadiles some chicken! and it was pretty cool. Anyway, ill write some more later
Catch ya next week
Elder Trotter

Hey everyone-
So this has definatley been a very eventful week for me. A pretty hard one. So we got transfer news on Friday. And i figured out that i was getting transferred to miri, sarawak as a zone leader . And that i had to leave tawau by monday. So, needless to say, i was very sad about leaving tawau, and it was really hard on me. It still is. I really miss it there, and i feel like i left my family there. I will miss everyone so much, and i dont really feel like they can be replaced. But i need to just try and keep working hard and do my best here.
I have a new companion, and ive only been with him for a couple days, but i can already see that things are going to be really great with him. His name is Elder Christian and he is from nebraska. Its cool because we have the same type of work ethic and everything. and so i know we will do a lot of work. Im not sure what i think of the whole zone leader thing. I thought it was kinda fast, but apparetly the mission president thinks i am ready. That makes me the youngest zone leader in the mission. so i guess we'll see how that goes.
I had a perfect end to everytihng in Tawau. we had a baptism on the last saturday that i was there. Her name is Paulina. She is Indonesian, and shes way great. She is super faithful, and very sensative to the spirit. She had to work on the sunday after her baptism, and so we were afraid that she couldnt get to church to be confirmed. But she just left her work to come to church. She said that she didnt care about the problems it would cause. She understood the importnace of everything. it was great to see that sacrifice from her.
So about the pictures-
the picture with me and all the people at church. those are all my recent converts that i have had in tawau. they are the best. 2 are missing from the picture.
the picture with me and all the rock looking kids- just some kids that we met on the bus that apparently have no idea thats its not the year 1985 anymore.
the picture with me and the guys grom church-thats just some of the youth and young adults from tawau. they are way cool. im gonna miss them.
and then there is the picture from paulinas baptism.
the sunset- thats the evening of the last baptism i had in tawau. thats the view of the ocean from the church.
Anyway, thats about all from this week,
dont forget to write me is you can!
Elder Trotter

Hey everyone
I havent written for a while. But i will try to write a little now. So we had a baptism on Saturday. Her name is Ling Ling. Im not sure if i have wrote about her or not. No shes not chinese. Shes actually Filipino. And her real name is Lenie. But she likes Ling Ling better. haha. Anway, also transferrs are coming up this week. and its a possibilitty i could get trasnferres out of tawau. But i am not sure. i guess we will just have to see.
This last week has been way hard. I have worked really hard, and i taught the most amount of lessons i have taught in a weeks time on my whole mission. Sorry if that last sentance didnt make sense. I am just trying to type fast. haha.
ANyway, we have another baptism this week. Her name is Paulina. and she is indonesian. Its fun teaching her becuase she doesnt know a single english word at all. And we can teach her in really deep malay and she understands everything. Its great. Usually you cant teach people with very deep language becuase they just dont use deep language here. Usually you have to teach everyone like they are a 5 year old kid. anyway, but thats about all i got time for this week!
Elder trotter
Both of these pictures were from this week. One is a picture from Ling Lings baptism. Its weird....all of our investigators have been 20-23 year old females lately. hahahaha.
The second picture is of me cross dressing in traditional iban clothes. haha. All that stuff is actually what the girls where. But our members thought it was way funny to see a white male wearing it. So we got a picture of it. haha

Dear everyone,
Im glad that i got the chance to skype most of you while it was mothers day, and the day after for some of you. But it was wayy cool to be able to talk to you all and hear how everyone is doing.
Anyway, this week was pretty eventful. A lot of fun. But literally the most sucessful week of my mission i think. I taught the most amount of lessons that ive ever taught in a week, and also, had a ton of people at church. Transfers are coming up soon, and im thinking that i might get transfered from tawau in abotu 3 weeks, so ive been trying as hard as i can to prepare all the people we have right now for baptism. ANd hopefully get about 4 of them baptised before transfers happen. Just in case i leave. But not only was it great for missionary work, i had a lot of fun.
Last week for p-day we went to this cool jungle place to walk around. and go on hikes. The pictures of me on the vines is from there. It was pretty cool to actually swing on vines. I guess the true tarzan in me came out. I have some video of me swinging on them, but video is hard to send over email.
Also, last week, i finally got that sword from the iban guy.So i attatched some pictures of him and me, and the sword and everything. Anyway, but when i bought it from the guy, i got to heard a little more of the story about it. ANd its way cool. I guess he has had the wood from this sword all carved for about 40 years now. ANd hasnt done anything with it. And the wood that you see that is white, that is actually bone. Its bone from a jungle dear that he killed bowhunting in the jungle about 45 years ago. We're talking about a little jungle man killing a dear with a homemade bow. Thats way cool. Anyway, and all the bone on the sword comes from the same animal. Dont worry, i got him on film telling the story where everything comes from. I think this might be the coolest souvenier that i will be able to get on my mission. And not only cool, it comes with a way cool story too.
Also this week, we went to a place about an hour and a half outside of tawau called semporna. Its a fancy tourist place, with a lot of cool stuff to see. So i just got back from that yesterday. Thats the pictures of me holding up the crab and stuff. And a picture in front of all those stairs.
So ya, this week was great all around, and i am super glad that i could talk with everyone. I guess ill write you all next week!!
Also, i forgot to add, there is that picture of me right next to that monkey. When we were in semporna (that tourist city) we went out to eat, and this place had monkeys just roaming around all over the place. People will bring bread and stuff and feed the monkeys. Just like you would feed the ducks at story book island. haha. Anyway, these monkeys were not afraid of us at all. And they seem completely harmless. That is until, they feel threatened. And so i kept messing with this monkey to try and get closer to it for a closer picture. And it started to bear its teeth at me a lot. And they werent small teeth. But i didnt care. I just kept messing with it. So....i was behind it, trying to get a good picture, and it looked back at me a few times, and then attacked!!!! hahaha. it was crazy! it just up and out at me with its teeth all beared, but i jumped up too, and it didnt get me. but the monkeys hand hit my shirt. it was pretty crazy and definatley scared me. They seem all nice and playful until the wanna bite your head off. haha. anyway, i thought i would add that little story to go with the pictures...

Hey everyone-
This week was pretty cool. We had some baptisms, and some cool experiences as well.
This week we had Mariam and Mary get baptised. Which is pretty cool. The day before Mariam got baptised, we had some issues, and we werent sure if she was going to be able to. It was just some weird legal stuff becuase of the government here. But we called the mission president about it. And he didnt know. And he had to call the Asia Area presidency. And they didnt know. And so they had to talk to the Asia Area attorney about it. And he gave it the ok. So, that news got passed down to us, and then Mary was batpsied the next day. It was kinda cool because we had our investigator go all the way up to the top dogs. Kinda fun.
Also this week, we met this way cool investigator. Riza. Sorry, no pictures. But we met her on saturday, the day of the baptisms, and then she came to church on sunday. She accepted a baptisimal date that sunday. She was just wayyyy prepared. and loves everything about what we are teaching. She is just excited to join the church, and to learn more. Anyway, it seemed kinda odd to me that she was that in to the church and everything that quick. So, when we taught her on monday, i asked her why she already seemed to know the church was true. and then she told us about a dream she had...
On friday night, riza had a dream. Pretty simple dream, but way cool. She said that in her dream she saw a random girl walking down the street. She didnt know the girl or anything, but she asked her where she was going. the girl said that she was going to "jalan tanjong batu" (thats an area here in tawau) And riza, not knowing the girl, felt that she needed to follow this girl to go to that area. So she starts walking with the girl in the street and Riza asks her some more questions about how to get to jalan tanjong batu and random stuff like that. Riza said that she seemed very curious about going to that place becuase she had never been there before. So she just trusted this random girl that she met in the street to take her there. that was all that happened in her dream.
We met Riza the next day after her dream at our recent converts house. She had never seen us before, and didnt know anything about us, but said that she "had feelings that she couldnt describe" about wanting to talk to us. When we saw her at our recent converts house, we didnt even contact her. She just said hi. But later, she told the recent convert that she felt like she really wanted to meet us again. That was when our recent convert told us about her, and i was able to call her and invite her to come to church on sunday. And she came. It was her first time ever being at church.
She said on the way to church she discovered that the church was on Jalan tanjong batu. The place that girl was taking her in her dream. She never knew where the church was before that. But she had been taken there in her dream. When she got to the church, she told us that she knew it was the place that the girl was trying to take her. crazy huh?
SO thats why, ;ater that day, after church, she accepted a baptisimal date, and just seemed to know everything was true. Anyway, pretty cool story. I hope it made sense. haha. So i attatched some pictures of the baptism. And a drink that i got that was wayy good. haha. and also, a guy named petrus that we taught. He was way cool and way funny. he is old, but he is still way strong. So those are the pictures. hopw everyone had a good week! remember to write back!
Elder Trotter

Hey everyone-
its been a couple weeks since i have written a letter to everyone, so i decided that i would do one this week.
Anyway things have been alright for the past couple weeks. I finished that song that i was working on in the studio. I think most of you have it. If i sent it to you already its just the rough version. not the final version. So i will give you another version of the song later that sounds a lot better. Anyway, so i guess thats some new news. Also, we have some baptisms coming up. The baptisms of Marium and Mary. Im not sure if ive wrote about them a whole lot. But they are way cool. I think i wrote a little bit about the story about how we found marry. One day we were knocking doors, and we came to a mosque. (they are all over the place) so we thought that all the houses right around this mosque were going to be muslim. So we stopped knocking and decided to go knock somehwere else. As we were walking away, i saw a little picture of Christ out of the corner of my eye. and so i went to that house and we knocked on the door. And a lady named mary answered. Shes now getting baptised on saturday. Im lucky i saw that picture.
On some other news.....Camille is getting married on August 10th. ha. not quite sure what i wanna say about that. im not gonna lie, the thought of that has pretty much ruined my whole week. and last week. And probably next week too. But oh well. Theres not a whole lot i can do about it. So i guess ill just keep on rolling, and doing my missionary work...
Anyway, thats about all thas happened in the past little bit. If anything cool happens, ill be sure to let you know...
Elder Trotter