Dear Elder Slavens

Dear Elder Slavens
Elder Trenton J Slavens
Thailand, Bangkok/Arizona, Gilbert/
Texas Houston East
Elder Dallin J Slavens Cambodia, Phnom Penh
Elder Chancellor J Slavens Idaho, Twin Falls

Monday, February 24, 2014

Oh, Is It Monday Again? Alright I Guess I'll Write Another Email.

Happy P-Day, everyone!! And isn't it a beautiful one?? It's actually very nice right now in Wendell, and I'm gonna make this email a quick one so that I can run off into the hills and enjoy my "day off"!

This has been a wonderful week with like literally no complaints at all. We've seen so much progress in our investigators and it's been such a huge blessing to see them all going somewhere. I love seeing people take steps to repentance and try to become better than they currently are. And this is really saying something, because pretty much every single person I have the honor to teach is like AMAZING anyway!!

We met an awesome new dude this week named Javier, who's from Peru. By the way, Peruvians have really cool accents, like super duper flowy and it's almost hard to understand them 'cause their Spanish flows so well. Anyway, this is a really awesome man. He's come here all the way from Peru, leaving his family, so that he can gain some money to help support them. Apparently there's some freaky kind of industry in Peru that makes it almost impossible for citizens to get good jobs and make any money, yet the country lives. Not sure how all that works, but either way, Javier lives here now and I'm happy about that. Although I feel for him big time because he's planning to be away from his family for a seemingly indefinite period of time, solely so that he can take care of them. That is real sacrifice, and I have a lot of respect for the decision he's made. We were able to share the message of the Restoration with Javier this week, and he really seemed to enjoy it! I'll keep you updated on that one!

We also were able to do a lot of member strengthening this week, which was a huge blessing. We saw a lot of members of our ward who were having hard times, and it was our blessing to see those people and help them with the things that were bothering them. I love doing that stuff. I'm making awesome friends here in Idaho that I'll certainly be keeping in touch with from now on.

Other than that, no big news! Except for that I LOVE MY MISSION!! You guys are all wonderful and I love you too! Keep your chins up and always stay on the straight and narrow! Keep the faith! Muah!

Elder Slavens

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

What's With All These Observed Holidays??

Seriously, what even is President's Day? Sounds to me like it's just a silly excuse for the librarian to not let us in to do our emails. Anyway, that's why it's Tuesday and not Monday that I'm writing. Sorry about that! I'm sure everyone was just dying.

So for the 3rd week in a row I'm feeling rather out of sorts as I write my emails. I have a super hard time sleeping at night and so I've recently been taking Melatonin to help me K.O. rather than sitting up awake at 2:00 am. And I think I may have accidentally OD'd a little bit last night and taken one too many so that I would fall asleep faster, and it ended up having the opposite effect. I was up like all night, and as a result I'm like way groggy and blah. On top of that I just consumed like 40 pounds of Mexican food for lunch and that's putting me out of sorts as well. Though it was quite tasty.

Anyway, this has been a really great week. Although the sad thing is that I'm starting to find that the more enjoyable the week is, the less I seem to learn! And this has been quite an enjoyable week, so I'll have to think long and hard about what I've actually gotten out of it. Other than the fact that Melatonin may be a blessing, and it may be a curse, depending on the dosage. But we've just had a lot of success this week. Many little miracles are being witnessed by Elder Wright and I every day here in Wendell, and it's super refreshing. We were blessed this week to have lots of lessons with people, as well as 3 new people to teach who we feel have real potential to do the right things! And of course, we've stuck as well with the investigators of this area who are progressing, and we've seen them continue to do so as we've walked around knocking their doors.

Dang it, my stinking brain isn't working right now and I just can't for the life of me think of anything really specific that happened! I guess it'll just have to suffice by saying that this week was really good and we're seeing a lot of great things happening. Next week I will be sure to not do anything stupid like running around in the snow in no more than shorts, or overdosing on Melatonin, so that I might actually be able to write a well-connected and coherent email. Rather than just this blah blah blah. But until then, know that I love you all, and that I miss all of my friends and family back home! Hope you had a wonderful President's day, whatever that is, and that the upcoming week treats you no worse! Paz y amor!

Lesson Learned: Melatonin does the job. But read the labels or it might send you into a coma, or turn you into a zombie.

Elder Slavens

Monday, February 10, 2014

Cold Spell

Hey world!

So I am sick today, and my mind is basically a puddle, so if this email sounds super discombobulated, you know why.

This has been a really awesome week. We were able to do a lot of service and have some great lessons as well. We had transfers this week, and though Elder Wright and I made it through unscathed yet again, basically the whole rest of our district was torn right up, which really kinda sucks 'cause we were all getting really close and having a lotta fun, and then whoop! No more fun! It's no worry though, because I'll be able to see everyone at meetings and stuff!!

Anyway, we were doing a service project this week for one of the members in our area, and it had snowed HARD the night before. Like, I had never seen snow like that before and I was just freaking out like SNOW SNOW SNOW! But I'm the only Californian here and everybody thought I was just being a baby. Anyway, we went to this member's house to do our service project and there was snow everywhere and it was quite chilly. We ended up moving a bunch of stuff back and forth and whatnot, but naturally every once in a while a little snowball would be thrown between Elders, just to keep us on our toes. But before we knew it, we were all just pummeling each other with snow and it turned into this monster snowball fight between us and this family. It was so much fun! However, I wasn't really dressed for success. I had only shorts on and my hoodie's sleeves were rolled up 'cause that's just how we do it in California, and I haven't really seemed to adapt. We ended up messing around in the snow for quite a while, and I'm completely convinced that that is why I am now sick. Blegh.

Another fun story! We went to church this Sunday, and it was all just well and good, you know, like any normal Sunday. I was sitting in the pew before Sacrament Meeting started, and this guy comes up and like shoves himself into the seat beside me and I'm just thinking 'Who the heck does this guy think he is??' And I look up, and it's freaking JOHN BLATTER of San Ramon, CA! None other than my old YM leader who basically made me who I am! It was so crazy to see him and I was just so surprised I didn't even know what to think! He told me that he had just been in Pocatello to visit his brother and that he figured he might as well just swing by Wendell as well while he's at it! And boy was I happy at that! It was so great to see someone from back home who knows me for who I actually am, and not as this missionary who has to restrain all the weirdness because if he didn't then nobody would listen to him! So that was fun. Good to see ya, Blatter!

Anyway, that's about all that happened this week! It's been a good one, and again, sorry for the discombobulation! I love you all!!

Lesson Learned: Wear actual pants in the snow.

Elder Slavens


There's me in my shorts and rolled up sleeves with my head in the snow. And Elder Davis' head, which has fallen off.



 This is Raul Ortiz, like my favorite man in the world. He can't say Slavens, so he calls me Elder Sleeping Bag. Look at the beautiful drawing he made of me!



JOHN BLATTER CAME TO WENDELL TO SEE ME!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Transfers, Exchanges and Other Cool Stuff

Well hello there! I'm back!!
I don't really know where to go with this email right now, because for whatever reason my mind is just running at a million miles an hour, but nothing crazy has happened for me to be thinking this way, so basically I'm just excited about nothing.
This has been a really good week! We didn't have many huge lessons or grand spiritual experiences, but it's just been one of those good ones! Since Elder Wright is the District Leader of our area, he is asked to go on exchanges with every other pair of Elders in the district, which naturally means that I get to exchange with the guy that he's not exchanging with! For those of you who don't know, an exchange is basically just when two companionships of missionaries split up and join one of the other missionaries to give each other pointers and stuff like that.
Anyway, Elder Wright kinda put off doing these exchanges until like the very end of this month, which is when he was supposed to do it, and so we ended up being super pressed to get all of them done and ended up exchanging with like 4 companionships in one week. Elder Wright and I were hardly even companions this week! But it's been so dang fun to see the other guys in action and to learn ways to be more efficient and obedient.
Big News!! We got transfer calls just the other day, and it looks like Elder Wright and I are sticking together here in Wendell once again!! That's three transfers together, which is just unheard of! I'm super excited to stick with him, because we've gotten to know our investigators together really well and I think we'll be able to finally see some big progress soon, which is super exciting. I can't wait to see where we can take this!
And unfortunately I really don't have much more to say today! It was just a good week and I'm really happy! I hope you all have awesome weeks and learn something new every day! I'm working hard on recognizing what those lessons are. And it's been an adventure doing so! Peece!
Lesson Learned: Elder Wright and I have something to accomplish here in Wendell.
Elder Slavens