And I Thought the Towns Couldn't Get Any Smaller

I WAS WRONG. I've made my official move into the.... village? I dunno.... of Carey, Idaho. This place is SO DANG SMALL YOU GUYS like dang. There's like 600 people here if that. I've been here 5 days and I think I know everybody already. Looks like I'm done. JK NEVER DONE.

Anyway this week has been BOMB. Like, so pumped. I'm an official Zone Leader and I've already felt a few of the ups and downs that come along with that. On Friday I gave my first Zone Training meeting which was an awesome experience. Very different from giving trainings as a District Leader. You see, as a District Leader, you're given a very broad topic that you seek tons of revelation for so you can come up with an hour-long training based on the needs of your district. It's a way more personal thing and you get super super close to the missionaries in the district 'cause you're praying for what they, personally, need. It's way cool. But as a Zone Leader what you do is you go to a conference in the mission office once a month, and they give you the training, and then the following week you basically regurgitate that information to the zone. Way way different, and it may seem a bit more robotic, but I'm actually loving it! We had some way good discussions during our Zone Meeting about resolving the concerns of our investigators and less-actives and helping them come unto Christ through problem-solving. It's legit.

The new companion's dope. His name's Elder Chase, and he's from Hawaii. He's actually only 1/4 Hawaiian, but he's lived there his whole life, so he's straight up. It's been way fun learning about Hawaiian culture and some of the crazy jazz they do down there. We're getting along super well, so I'm way pumped for this new transfer. Yee.

Carey's really cool 'cause it's the only Zone Leader area in our mission that's considered Spanglish. For the most part, Spanish missionaries that become Zone Leaders lose their Spanish because they don't speak it the whole time they serve in that position. But although Elder Chase is technically an English missionary and doesn't know much Spanish, we actually have a bunch of Spanish work out here and I've been keeping it up pretty good. So that's way chill.

HEY. I HAVE AN ASSIGNMENT FOR ALL Y'ALL. I'm sure you've heard about the Christmas Initiative that the Church is starting up this holiday season, and I just wanna talk a second about that. For you guys who don't know, the Church is starting up this "awareness program", so to speak, about the true nature of Christmas. It's a huge deal. They're putting up a billboard in Times Square, they're buying out all the advertisements on YouTube, they're going hard. It's apparent that we're expected to make a big push with this, so I want all of you to BE A PART OF IT! In the most recent copy of the Ensign, you'll find a sheet of 12 pass-along cards to give to your friends. As a mission, we've been challenged to pass out 10 of these bad boys a day. Not easy in a town like Carey, but we'll try. The card leads interested peeps to a new website, christmas.mormon.org, where you can watch a super short, super powerful video about the first gift of Christmas. CHECK IT OUT and then TELL EVERYONE ELSE TO CHECK IT OUT. It's gonna be huuuuuuge.

Anyway, I gotta run! I love you all, and as Elder Chase would say...

Aloha.

Elder Slavens