Washing machine woes...

Hello All!

No time to email today, my washing machine destroyed every piece of white clothing I own. About to run out and buy it all. That’s what P-day is for, I guess! Have a great week, love Y’all!

Talk to you next week!

Look at this lady we met! She paints like crazy! Thousands of them! We’re going back to help her organize them.

Elder Troy

Hail and Thunder! Oh, my!...

Hello All!

Our apartment is driving us nuts. Our upstairs neighbors smoke weed constantly (who smokes weed at 7 in the morning?) our AC just broke, and our next door neighbors get into some colorful, heated arguments about their relationship quite frequently haha. I’ll let y’all read between the lines on that one.

We got news that more missionaries will probably be filling in College Station next transfer. The good news is that we won’t have to double cover! The bad news is that Elder Pinster and I may get split up just halfway through his training. That would be twice! :(

We still have three baptismal dates:

Karla

Morgan

And Morgan’s son, Logan.

We’re gearing up for conference here in a couple of weeks, and we’re going to be entering a Chili-Cook-Off this weekend!

We did have one noteworthy event this week: A massive hail/thunder storm. We picked up hail 2 inches across! It was crazy, but brief.

We also finally got to go fishing on P-Day. It was a nice break from College Station’s traffic and noise!

Here’s a bunch of pictures.

Love Y’all!

Elder Troy

The hardest three months

Hey Y’all! It’s been a great month, full of new challenges and big surprises.

Before I left Brenham, my companion and I were able to get Kaylyn baptized, finally! I was even able to confirm her as a member, give her the Holy Ghost, and bless her, which was amazing.

Now I have a new companion, and I’m serving in enemy territory: Temptation Station. (College Station) I was really hoping to never serve here, but at least I’m in a family ward instead of being on campus!

My new companion is fresh out of the MTC. I’m training again! His name is Elder Pinster. He grew up about 45 minutes South of me, in Portland OR. But since he’s in a different state, stake, and 5 years younger than me, we never met. He’s great! President knew we would have a pretty challenging area, so he gave me the most solid trainee, I’m convinced.

In addition to my original responsibilities, and aside from the challenges of all the pretty girls and partying, we’re whitewashing two wards together (we’re replacing both missionaries in those wards)

However, we inherited a baptismal date and set another one last week. We plan on setting four more this week or next. It should be a successful and busy transfer!

Hope y’all are having a great week back home. Thank you for your prayers and support. Here are some pics and a video of our war on the roaches in Brenham.

Wait a week

Longer email next week!  Transfer day...

Elder Derek Troy

Exceedingly blessed

Hey Y’all! What a fantastic week it has been! We’ve been ‘exceedingly’ blessed.

First of all, Kaylyn has finally resolved all questions about her baptism on the 24th with her Dad. I know that part of his heart softening was the many times we reached out to him, so we’re feeling very rewarded! Now there’s nothing getting in the way of her baptism on the 24th.

We’re trying a different approach to finding new investigators now. We’re knocking doors less and trying to get more members of the church to share the gospel with their friends. We’re hoping that this will result in us having more people to teach, as our teaching pool is looking a little sparse with Jason out of town this week! So far, the fruits have been slow to materialize.

Part of the inspiration we received about how to help us to solicit more referrals was to create a training for the Sunday School instructors. The hope was that they instructors would be impressed by our teaching ability, and their increased confidence in the missionaries would make them more likely to let us teach their friends. 

We have a number of bad habits that we use when teaching in the church, and we talked about a few of them. Some people obviously resented the criticism of the teaching approach they grew up with, but overall it was well received and had at least one member of the stake high council speaking in another ward about broadening it to the rest of College Station. Pretty cool! I’ve attached the agenda we used for the training if anyone is curious, though I’m polishing up a better version this week.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1028PZ248DSS5no4o4B6DhFQFz1npY652KXR-WEjUVv4

It was also Elder Pacheco’s birthday this week!

Have a great week Y’all!

Elder Derek Troy

A looooong week of meetings...

Hey Y'all, It's been a LONG week. I'm wore out! We've had lots of meetings, and we'll have a BUNCH more tomorrow - like, 4 hours worth. I'm beginning to feel like meetings are Satan's way of making us feel organized when we're not?

Kaylyn:

Kaylyn is still doing well, though it has been a struggle meeting around her busy schedule! She is still on track for baptism on the 24th. We're looking to increase the number of contact events she has with branch members without the missionaries, so that she feels a part of the branch. We're working to get her more involved in the Young Women's program!

Jason:

Jason is doing well, and we expect to see him at church again on Sunday. We've been a little pushy with baptism with him lately, but we're excited to do some family history with him and help him feel the spirit of Elijah!

Aaron:

Aaron is not doing too hot. He slept in on Sunday and missed an appointment with us earlier this week - so it's time to assess his desires and determination to accomplish them. We're still trying though! We feel the Lord's love for him and will try to help Aaron to feel it too.

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Elder Pacheco has been fired up lately! It's been great, since I've been dragging all week. We're still working hard, teaching a fair bit, and have baptisms lined up! Wish us luck!

Elder Derek Troy

The Holy Ghost or a strong breeze?...

Hey Y'all! We've had a great week here in Brenham, as per usual! We're
working hard and seeing a lot of success.

But I want to share the tender mercy we had this week with Hannah. We
were out knocking when Hannah opened her door with a smile.

Hannah... Is an interesting character. She came to the door to talk to
us because her gay friend from Utah told her to be nice to the
missionaries. She's in her early thirties, and had short (buzz short!)
blonde hair. We were a bit surprised by her frankness and jocularity,
but what I was perhaps most alarmed at was the short silk Kimono she
came to the door in.

Despite being a little rough-around-the-edges, Hannah was kind to us.
She swore once or twice but immediately apologized, saying she admired
mormon missionaries for being "squeaky clean". She was bright and
alert, and listened to what we said intently.

She shared with us her battle with addiction, then with rehab,
sobriety, breast cancer, and mastectomy, and how demoralizing it had
all been. She would shortly have her uterus removed to protect her
against cancer returning in the future. She described her trials as
having her womanhood stripped away, and lamented that she would never
get to bear a child. She was clearly discouraged.

We shared with her what we could of our testimonies of Christ in that
brief interaction, and saw her heart soften.

Then the spirit called to my remembrance Chelsea, the addict and
sex-slave I met early on in my mission. I shared our experience with
Chelsea to Hannah, and what a blessing the Book of Mormon had been to
Chelsea's hope and spirit. Hannah's eyes melted.

She wept as she relayed her own similar story and escape from
imprisonment ten years earlier. She hoped, she said, that Chelsea's
life had turned around as much as hers had.

What a blessing the commandments are! What safety they offer! And what
solace! I have truly gained a testimony of the commandments.

Have a great week Y'all! If you haven't prayed yet today, say one now!

Elder Derek Troy