Hello my family, friends, and fans. I hope you are all doing swell. You may be thinking, “Oh yes, Elder Slavens has been there for 3 weeks now, the language must be getting easier.” I would encourage you to think again. I learn every day how hard this language is. It destroys me mentally and physically. It hurts. The pain. The agony.
On a positive note I know about 7 more words than I did last week. I'll get there slowly. I'm not scared, I just have to learn a language in 6 weeks or else nobody will understand me. Easy.
The weeks are beginning to go by so much faster now which is happy and sad and I am happy to say I am getting used to waking up at 6:30. I have learned that waking up and jumping into the shower is the only way I can function. I shower and change into my fancy white shirt and tie then breakfast baby. Then it’s exercise and then shower again if i'm feeling like it. I love studying now. We study so hard every day but for some reason I still feel like we don't have enough time in the day. We are non-stop but then I get in bed and i'm like: 1. what did I do today, and 2. Wait what, where did this day go. That's basically me every night.
We are working hard and are doing everything we can to learn this language. Every day we study a topic in Preach My Gospel and discuss what we have found and learned in our reading. This helps us all learn and prepare for our missions. We then try to memorize two sentences in Thai each day before class. It's always a struggle, but I manage to do it. The moment I leave class, BOOM, it's gone. Sad. I'll get better I promise. I am learning so much and am basically perfect now. You can ask me anything about Thai, I'll know it. We learned to bargain this week and you know that will come in handy. Mom, you better be ready. I'm coming back with my suitcases packed full of JUNK. Enjoy.
I will end with a story. Elder Wright and I were studying when we realized, “Oh, we need to use the ห้องอาบน้ำ (aka the bathroom or directly translated: closet water).” Either way, we went to the bathroom and walked in and looked to the right and realized there were no urinals. We said, “Hmm that's odd!” So we walked further back in the bathroom and again saw no urinals. I said, “Hey where are the urinals?” And then it hit us. We realized this was most likely not the men’s room. We yelled, “AHH, the ladies room!” and we ran. We were so scared. We made it outside safe and looked at the sign and it did in fact say: “Women’s”. It had the little woman figure and everything. We were in shock. We don't know if anyone was in there or if people saw us, but let me just say: If you don't see urinals at first, you should leave because it is most likely the women's room. You are welcome for the advice.
If anyone has an extra set of bagpipes, I would love them. My address is:
Elder Trenton Slavens 0316 THA-BAN 2005 N 900 E #131 Provo, Utah 84602
I was sitting writing this email when I heard a humming noise behind me. My first thought was, “Wow, who has bagpipes?” I soon realized it was the air conditioning. I would love to make my dream come true of becoming a bagpipe player if anyone wants to help me in my quest.
And now I say goodbye until next time. If you would like to contact me my email is: trentonslavens@missionary.org Thanks for tuning in. Enjoy my stories and images. See you next week. Well, you will see me. I wont see you cause it's mission time.
This week’s Thai lesson:
หู ear
หน้าผาก forehead
ฟัน tooth
เมื่อเรากลับใจอย่างจริงจัง เราจะทิ้งบาป
When we sincerely repent, we turn away from sin.
Mosiah 24:14
Elder Slavens
Elder Slay
Fish Boy
#trentakesthailand
I just am getting good at this selfie thing
Me and the flag of the place where I am going to be speaking
the language known as Thai. Yeah pretty cool. Oh and star wars. 
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