Hey everyone-

This week was pretty good. We had a baptism. Her name is Janet and she is Philippino. She is way cool, and we have been teaching her for the past 2 months. So everything went quite well with her progression and everything. It was the first baptism this branch has had in over a year, and so we had to clean out the font pretty well! haha. so that was the reason that i attatched the picture of me sweeping it out. ANyway, also, i got pictures from my birthday a week or two ago. Yes, i got a monster which is awesome! i didnt even know that they had them in malaysia. I have never seen one. And so i freaked out when one of my fellow missionary friends bough one for me. It was way cool.

So we have been working hard. And its just now rainy season! so i got a picture of the rain. its pretty crazy every single day, we get wasted by the rain. its insane. I sometimes dont even wear regular shoes. I just go out in crocs. You kinda have to sometimes becuase your shoes just get destroyed. anyway, the rain has been pretty crazy. Also, i attached a picture of the chapel. That was the attendance that we had for the baptism!!! it was awesome. That was by far the most people i have ever had a baptism, or seen anyone else have. It was so great to have so many people there supporting janet. It was great. The members here are pretty good.....If only they wanted to help with the missionary work.....

So i also put in a picture of me eating dinner with some member. One of the pictures, the one that i am actually in, that is with some Iban members. Which is surpring becuase usually ibans are only in east malaysia. So that was cool that we got with some ibans that were here in west. It was nice becuase i got to feel, for a little bit, like i was back in east malaysia. ALso, the other picture was when i went and ate dinner with some pakistanis! it was seriously so good. and they were wayyyy awesome. i think it was probably the best food that i have had on my mission so far. no joke.

Anyway, things are pretty good, and the work is still going. and we are trying hard to find more and more people to teach. Anyway, until next week-
Elder Trotter

Hey its been a little bit since i wrote to everyone. But here is what is going on. Some events for this week.
1. We are moving apartments. We have been living very far from our area. So me and my companion Elder Adams  found a new apartmrnt to live in. It will make things much easier for us. and accelerate the work
2. We went to an activity called skytrex. i send some pictures. it was really cool. it was like a ropes course that was really high up, and it was a ton of fun.
3. Janet is progressing towards baptism!
So ya, the work has been pretty tough since i got to KL. But i havent stopped. Its definately wayyy different than my other areas. and the work is slower than i am used to. But still, i am working hard, and learning about myself and Gods works. But everything isnt all bad. I am having a lot of fun, and learning to just put my trust in the Lord and that he will progress the work. And on the other hand, Janet, is doing quite well. She is fellowshipped by all the members of the church, and will be getting baptised on November 10. it will be the first baptism my branch has seen in over a year! so things are going quite well. I feel like there is not a whole lot to say to everyone other than i am trying hard to find new people to teach, and its been tough. But i know that God never really gave a baptismal number that we needed to reach. so it will be fine. ALso, my grandparents are going on a mission to the Washington Tacoma mission which i think is so great!! im glad to have some fellow missionaries in my family! and i am glad that i have grandparents that are willing to serve. I might not see them for a while, but im sure they will be just fine. Anyway, hopefully some cool stuff happens this week so i have somethings to write about next week!
Love
Elder Trotter

hey everyone whats up?

its been a while since i wrote but things are all good. I am in my new area. Its in west malaysia. Its the big city of KL. and things arent going too bad. The work here is a lot harder, but im getting it figured out. So i am also training a new elder from the MTC. His name is Elder Adams. He is a way sick guy and we get along great. Me and him are sticking it out in the city, and making things happen. We have had a lot of new investigators and everything. Our area has a reputation of being the hardest area in the mission. It hasnt had a baptism for over a year now! And i guess thats why they sent me and Elder Adams here. So we could do work and get stuff done. Anyway, i have already been here for 3 weeks now.
So im still kinda freaking out about the whole new ages to go on missions. I feel like i am gonna go back to BYU when i get home and there will be NO GIRLSSSSSS when i get there. honestly, this is a legit concern of mine. haha. not only do i get screwed by a dear john a couple of months back....now there isnt even gonna be anyone to date when i get home!!! dang it. if only good ol' tom decided to do this AFTER i got home it would be all good.  But whatever. im sure ill manage.
So we have a really good investigator that we found our first week here. Her name is Janet. She is from the philipeans. Which is cool becuase i feel like i am teaching in tawau again. ANd she is progressing great. Im pretty sure shell be the first baptism that our branch has seen for a year. ya, i have also noticed that there are random connections here with the other places i have served in the past. Like there is a family here that is innactive that just moved here from tawau. and i knew them when i was in tawau. So we have been working with them. also, there are a TON of random connections like member's siblings and stuff like that from my other areas. if that makes any sense. anyway this week was pretty cool. We went to a place called Batu caves. It was infested with monkeys that love to steal stuff and eat bananas. but i got some cool pictures out of it.
By the way, i made those shorts as a joke for the shock factor. they were pretty funny. anyway, love to get some more emails from everyone soon! thanks!
Elder Trotter


and yes, those are 2 japanese girls that REALLY wanted to take a picture with me. haha.

so, this week we were riding on our bikes down the road like normal. and i happen to see a little snake from a pretty far distance. and my companion didnt. he just rode by it like it was nothing. but i saw it, and i veered away from it. and as i rode by it, i was kinda on the other side of the road. but as i rode by, it snapped at me as if to bite me. Luckily i had already veered away from it a bit. it didnt reach me or anything. But as that happened, i noticed that its head was fanned out quite a bit, of course, the unmistakeable look of a cobra. so i started freaking out pretty bad. haha. and i had to go back to the snake to get a picture of it for photographic evidence that i has truely been struck at by a cobra. so i went back. at first i took some pictures from about 30 ft away. but that wasnt good enough for me. I got up close to the thing. (now writing about it i feel really stupid) and i got about 8ish feet away from the thing to get the picture that i just sent you.
so. the next house we went to was an investigator tht is really smart. and he knows about all the outdoors and things. I showed him the picture on my camera and told him what had just happened. He told me i was really lucky that the cobra didnt spit at me becuase that cobra is a spitting cobra. and not only that, it was the type that was the black and white stripes. which is the worse kind. apparently i was really lucky. and come to find out, spitting cobras can spit venom in the eyes of a 6ft man from 8 feet away like it is nothing...
So, not a whole lotta time this week! but that was something cool that happened.
Also, we had a baptism. Her name is Marina, and she is super cool. She is the wife of member that has been innactive for a while. But we started to teach her, and she really helped her husband out to get acctive again! so things are great!! and shes a super cool recent convert already! and we are now busy teaching her family. her mom and her dad want to join the church. and her little sister is getting baptised later this month! is all good.
Until next week-
ELder Trotter
PS. thats a mazarati

So this was a pretty good week for me! It was zone conference and everything which was kinda stressfull, but we also got to go out for a zone activity. and we went to these super cool caves, and got some good pictures.
also, i had a baptism on sunday. which was pretty cool. Her name is Lilyana. I dont think i have wrote about her very much. But she is the daughter of a member that had never gotten baptised before. So we talked to her, and started to teach her about a month and a half ago, and she got baptised this sunday. which is always cool.
No one really showed up for the baptism. Becuase no one really does their callings here. The branch president wasnt there. neither was any member of the branch presidency. haha. so i got to preside. and conduct. haha. and find some members to give the talks and everything. But anyway, things ended up going pretty smooth.
Earlier last week, like i was saying, we went to those caves. There was a vine that i got to swing on which was pretty cool. I have a video of me swinging on it, but its too big to attatch to it and everything.
also, there was one part, where there was some light coming in to the cave from outside, and it made a pretty cool pillar of light. So i couldnt resist. i had to take a Joseph Smith picture. so i did.
Also, on the way back from the caves, there were these random italian guys that needed a ride back to main city where we were going. So they pretty much just hitch hiked with us. it was awesome. they had the most stereotypical italian accent i have ever heard. and then they started talking about speggheti and pizza. hahaha. i was laughing so hard. they continued to talk about they wouldnt eat speggheti outside of italy. becuase no one makes it right. hahaha. it was great. so i got a picture with them too.
anyway, this week was pretty fun.
WE have another baptism coming up this saturday. Her name is Marina. she is way cool. So i guess i can look forward to sending her baptismal pictures to you all.
Have a good week!
Love you guys
Elder Trotter

Hey everyone-
Its been a while i think since i made a letter for everyone. Sorry, but ive been busy, and i get kinda lazy to write.
Anyway, these past couple weeks have been alright. Been some good things, and some things that were just ok. I think everyone knows that camille got married. so that kinda sucked for me. But i didnt dwell on it much actually. I just can wish the best for her and her new life! and then keep going with mine. But other than that, Ive been working pretty hard lately, and it seems like investigators are a little harder to find than normal. i havent made any changes to what i have been doing to find, but i guess its just not as effective as it used to be. So me and elder christian have been trying really hard to contact and look for referrals. I hope this week will yield some new people.
I also had my year mark! pretty cool right!? im halfway done now. But apparently the second year goes a whole lot faster than the first. soo.....i guess it will seem like im actually more than half way done. But in honor of my one year mark, it normal to always burn a white shirt. But of corse, my name is still jake trotter, i cant do anything just normal. I gathered ALL the old garnments and white shirts i could find in the house and had a BIG burning. it was pretty cool. haha.
So...what now?
Its time for a new start for me. There is a lot of stuff that i just have to leave in my past and move on. Not only for my  mission, but for my life. I think all this happening right around my year mark is good for me. I can just start fresh the second year of my mission and not have anything to distract me, or to worry about. It wont be long again before i am home, and ill be wishing that i was still in malaysia. I can already predict the day. I got 12 months left. so i better make the best of it. I guess thats all i really have to say.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
By the way, my P-day is now officially changed from wednesday to monday. That means ill be online on sunday nights for everyone who is reading this. So if you wanna talk with me online, get on on sunday nights! Until next week-
Elder Trotter

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