Funerals and Pancakes

Hello Friends and Family!

Here is the latest letter from Elder Troy.  If you were hoping for pictures and videos (I know I have!), today is your lucky day!  This one is chock-full of ‘em!  He is still in Spring, TX, but may not be in the same apartment, so any letters or packages should be sent to the mission home.  He will swing by the home to pick it up.  If you’re sending a package, I was gently, but firmly, admonished about sending junk food (it was a Valentine’s chocolate!! Sheesh!).  No food or snacks for him, please.  Your letters and emails of The mission home address is:

Elder Derek Allen Troy

Texas Houston Mission

16623 Hafer Rd.

Houston, TX  77090-4401

As always,

Thank you for your love and attention to our son.  We love you all!

JD & Terri

P.S.  As usual, I can't figure out how to load the videos on here.  Please go to the Facebook page and you'll find them there.  

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Hey ya'll! This week has been absolutely nuts. I'm not even sure where to start.

We've been meeting with a lot of the 'they that are sick' (Matt 9:12) people lately. Addicts, criminals, and such. More on that in a bit... 

Being a missionary is hard! Seriously hard! If you always work expecting results, you get discouraged REALLY fast! Everything is according to both the generosity of Heavenly Father and the agency of the people we teach.

Our Zone is really struggling here. It's a hard zone to convert in because of the wealth of the area. Our zone is about 16 missionaries, with two zone leaders, two sister training leaders, and two district leaders. Our zone has been completely rebuilt over the last two transfers (twelve weeks) with two new sister training leaders, a new zone leaders, two new district leaders, and four additional new missionaries. That's an enormous change!

Elder Vickers is leaving Spring now. We knew one of us would have to be leaving because I'm finished with training. I will have a new companion here in Spring, and we don't know where Elder Vickers is going yet.

We were also supposed to have moved into a new apartment this week, but the complex insisted that we missionaries sign the lease. They didn't understand that we move to a new area every few months! It was super stressful. This apartment we're in now is the worst thing about my mission though so I'll be happy when we're finally out.

We're still meeting regularly with our powerlifting friends, and they're just awesome. They're LDS already and just don't know it, haha!

We also met a new person this week. We aren't really actively teaching her currently - we're just trying to help her sober up. We met her when we were knocking doors one sunny afternoon. She came running down the street after us yelling that she wanted to talk to us. She then told us about this really spiritual experience she had just had the night before... tripping acid. We agreed to meet the next afternoon because after we listened to her for a good half hour she was curious about our thoughts.  She came and we just did our best to help her understand that she is a Daughter of God. She was still coming down off some Coke and we weren't really getting through. Then, on Saturday she sent a great message:

"That entire time I did not smoke even one cigarette. And [...] always have a cigarette when around people" 

But Sunday she texted us a really ambiguous message. 

The first half was good: "I've accepted crist as my savior [...] and have found out I do not need any drug and can b completely sober"

The second half not so much "think i am Crist or Mary or something [...] But weed, weed is God medicine medicine i know it. [...] I look insane to ppl but I keep getting confirmation thru my phone booping and thru numerology it's amazing"

She's had an absurdly hard life. Sexually abused from the age of two on up, she says she's never been really happy, but the happiest she has ever been was when she was working a strip club. She’s living in TX to help her friend kick meth - apparently the only drug she won't use.  I don't know what to do for her. We don't want to give up on her, but how can she listen to the spirit when she has the devil constantly whispering in her ear? We agreed to meet with her in the future if she is willing to be sober. Pray for her.

I love you all.

Elder Derek Troy

Sometimes you just need a fat stack of pancakes.

 

One final goodbye for Sis. Levitt (in stripes) after serving honorably for the 18 months.

Getting swole with the powerlifting buddies.