The Elder that could be a veterinarian

Now this was a week. All other weeks are weeks but this was a WEEK. You know? Basically means it was a real good week. Wonderful for me. I love it. This week I hit my one month in Texas. Really crazy. My time here went really fast but at the same time it was very slow. Trying to readjust here was the slow part but every day goes by very quick. Our of nowhere its 9 and I'm like ok time to get ready for bed. That's one of my favorite parts of the day, sleeping. I love to sleep. I also love personal study. I just get to sit for an hour and study it's the best thing ever. I'm getting good at not using my phone. Man that thing is distracting but not anymore I'm a good boy. 

Ok want to hear why this week was good? I can tell you. I got some exciting stuff this week. But first what are we doing? Well we have been calling tons of random people getting lessons, we are teaching a lot of people so it was just a super busy week. We have lessons in person every day and then after the lesson since we can street contact we just talk to people in complexes and around on the street and my companion and I are talkers and are social people so we are pretty good at that. People just love to talk to us. 

Ok so story time. We had this lesson at this lady's house and it was a nice house but we went in and it was a crazy cigarette house. It smelled awful and there were drugs all over the table. All sorts of bad stuff and she and her friend met with us and told us a lot of struggles in their lives so it did end up being a super good lesson. It was very interesting though because she was acting weird and people kept knocking on the door and it was just all over the place but it was good. Later we got a called by a few people telling us that she is a con artist and does this to a bunch of different missionaries and churches and she is a drug dealer and every story she told us is fake. So we have no clue how true that is. We don't know what to believe but we are going to still try to meet but either over zoom or at a church to see if she is really interested and if this is something she wants or if she is trying to trick us. That was a plot twist to our week. 

We also got to visit this other family and the mom's son passed away so we got to eat dinner with her and cheer her up and at the end she asked us to give her a blessing. There were 4 of us and she picked me. Idk why but i've given so many priesthood blessings lately. Everyone that asks always asks me like I gave 3 this week. It's been so cool every time I have the chance to do this. The Spirit is real. The church is true.

Finally an amazing story. So we were leaving a lesson and I was driving home. I was going and thought I saw an animal then we drove over it. Like we didn't run it over it just went under the middle of the car. I pulled over and we jumped out and it was a little baby kitten in the middle of the street. We grabbed it and it was so small so stinky. We took it home washed him up with axe body wash gave it tuna and water and found it a home at one of our investigators house. We called a ton of people and either they said no because we hate cats or no we are allergic. I am also allergic to cats but apparently when they are little they are hypoallergenic so I didn't feel itchy so we good. We named the cat Tubi after a streaming service we heard about recently. He is a needed cat that won't stop meowing or following us. Glad we got rid of that but also sad. A bittersweet goodbye. 

So yeah see quite a good week. Thanks for coming and excited to see you again soon. Yee haw I love you sir. Enjoy your week in the Wild West. 

Elder Slavens

Elder Veteranatian

Elder Tubi

Mosiah 3:19 an all time goodie. I want to be a child again. Take me back. 

ผมยังไม่พบคน ๆ หนึ่งใน Texas ที่พูดอะไรใกล้ ๆ ภาษาไทยผมกำลังพยายามอย่างเต็มที่ หากใครรู้จักใครใน Pasadena Texas ที่พูดภาษาไทยได้โปรดแจ้งให้เราทราบขอบคุณ

I have not met one person yet in Texas that speaks anything near Thai. I am trying my best. If anyone knows anyone in Pasadena Texas that speaks Thai please let me know. Thanks

Our president gave us permission to go to a roller skating rink and while we couldn't skate 

we just went to talk to a member family and their nonmember friends while they were skating. 

Pretty fun we bonded with them quite a bit. 

Someone gave us a lot of otter pops so I said, "if you blend a lot together does it become a snow cone"? the answer is no it was just dark green, sticky, and gross. don't recommend. 

This should be something that everyone does. This is the new planking I call it DVDing. 

Like "oh after we eat this ice cream want to go DVD for a little bit"? Could be cool.

And here is our kitty Tubi. He smells like tuna and dirt and He is needy and jumps on me 

while I'm trying to study. Kinda unfortunate but at least he has a new home. 

Slay teaching English. Every Friday I have to stay up late to teach English. I am always tired 

but don't worry every time these people leave they know at least a few more words. 

If you like crawfish I like you cause I do too.

Friends. Hello. I. Am. Elder. Slavens. Welcome. To. My. Weekly. Email. 

Another exciting week and we had transfers this week and it was raining a lot this week. That's life in Texas rainy and hot and lots of crawfish.

So we had transfers and nothing is changing. Elder Winder and I will be together another 6 weeks. Woo. Cheers to more fun, memories, and hard work. I'll cheers to that. We only have 4 Elders in our district so that is pretty exciting. That's how it was last transfer and it is interesting because they usually have 10 or more people so it's quiet in meetings but gets real fun. 

So this week let's hear what happened. If you are a true fan and remember one of my first emails in Arizona you will remember this but I was on a walk and was burying a bird when my phone slid out of my pocket and cracked so that day my phone and my bird looked dead. Well this week I got out of the car at a gas station to get a drink and boom dropped my phone. A lame way for it to go but the whole corner got messed up and now I can't see how much battery my phone has it's so cracked. Like it still works just a crack at the top and a crack at the bottom. Rip phone. 

We were at a members house and the daughter Avery walked up to me. She said, "Hey can you hold this". I put out my hand and she hands me her tooth. Her brother knocked out her tooth and she wanted me to see it. So cool! She said that she was going to get money from the tooth fairy and she would give me half. I said, "No, you don'y really need to do that, actually please just don't do this". Don't worry I won't take a girls tooth money. So that was exciting and unexpected. 

For lunch one day a few Elders said hey you wanna get some crawfish I said yes please. Wasn't my first time I ain't a rookie to the crawfish game so we got 8 pounds of crawfish. It was just 4 huge bags of dead cooked garlic cajun flavored craw things. It was tasty. You have to break the tail and the shell and suck out the inside of the fish an eat the little baby parts of meat on it. If you were to watch someone do it you may puke but while eating it's delicious! You should try it sometime. 

We got a text that we were getting a new car and by new they really meant new. We got a brand new 2021 Chevy something with 28 miles. Never been in such a new car. That missionary life you know. Kind of a lame addition and story for this email but I just wanted to tell you what happened this week. Welcome.

Umm also we are teaching about 6 people right now which is crazy and is so nice. This area is amazing. We just have a bunch of lessons and work every day. Also our mission just got permission to start street contacting again so just walking up to people on the street and talking to them. I only did that for a day and a half in Arizona and that was a year and a half ago so wish me luck. But excited for this week, it'll be a good one. But anywhoo love you miss you fans, friends and dogs. Yee haw and have a good ol week. 

Elder Slavens

Elder Tooth

Elder Crawfish

Romans 6:3-5 a goodie I read this week. Enjoy her. 

สัปดาห์นี้เพื่อนของผมถามว่าคุณต้องการตัดผมไหมผมบอกว่าเอ่อบางทีอาจจะตัดสินใจไม่น่าจะเป็นความคิดที่ดีแต่ถ้าใครรู้วิธีตัดผมและอยากให้สอนผมก็น่าจะดีนะ

This week my companion asked do you want to give me a haircut? I said uh maybe then decided no. Probably a good idea, but if anyone knows how to cut hair and wants to teach me that would be nice.

I got this fancy thing you chew and it's apparently suppose to make your jawline looked better. 

No clue if it works but I'll give you a review in a year. 

This was us at Buc-ee's the huge gas station. No joke if was very large. 30+ urinals a lot of gas things and 

lots of drinks. Best pit stop of my life!

Just 2 pound of crawfish. Didn't mean to brag or make you sad with this one but it was pretty tasty and 

you missed out for sure.  

One large zone. If you find me text me and say hey there you are. I'll give you a virtual high give and

 I'll virtually give you $3 in monopoly money. 

Happy Birthday Adavele. She is the wildest lady ever. We are teaching her with some Sisters and 

she just laughs at us. Don't worry I told her she was my best friend. 

This is Elder Minor. He left and I am sad. Truly a good entry in the Elder Slay sad day journal. 

the spy ninja in a white shirt and tie

YEE HAW 

Another week another nickel. The Slay is back. The man of the hour. The missionary that this email talks about. It's me, the Spy Ninja. 

What a week. I enjoy being a missionary, and I enjoy being a missionary even more when I can go outside. Kinda crazy right. Yeah being outside is much better than being locked inside for 300 days or something like that. Crazy times. Can't believe that happened to me. Good for me. 

Ok but outside life is nice. Idk if I said this last time but we cover a young single adult ward and a family ward so we have a lot of work to do. Our whole area has so many people that are not interested that have been taught before so we are now able reach out to them and see how they are doing or if they are interested now. It's a lot of calling people and knocking on random doors with often no response. Better than sitting inside. Also Facebook in this mission is crazy. Like we have so many people reaching out to us looking for help and messages because the mission has ads on Facebook. I don't really get it but it gets us more people to talk to so I am happy. 

Ok but this week lots to say. So I went on exchanges with this other elder and he was sick so I got sick and I got a sore throat and then it spread to a few others. But my throat was dead and then I got all congested then my ear like stopped working. It was all pressurized and couldn't equalize. Kinda confusing I said, "yeah can you stop"? My ear replied, "no". Well the mission nurse said go to urgent care so I got to go back to the doctor. It reminds me of when I broke my wrist but didn't know for 2 months and they said, "Yeah dawg your wrist is broken". Who knew you could break your wrist and not know. But the doctor just said get pills and you'll be fine. Kinda lame I thought I would have an ear infection or something cool but no just snot and phlegm and congestion. BOO. 

It was also my companion Elder Winders birthday this week. He is 19 such a little boy. But we got to go to this food drive and they gave us a big bag of raw onions so he said, "Eat that onion, I dare you". You know I'll do anything I'm dared. So I ate 5 bites of raw onion right there. This became the thing of the day. We carried them around and got maybe 24 missionaries to take bites out of raw onions. I probably had 3 or 4 whole onions by the time the day was over. They had to do it for Elder Winders birthday. One of the best days of my life. Peer pressure at its finest. But also don't worry people loved it. 

Finally, on Sunday we went to knock on this guys door. His name is Morris and lives in this janky janky janky apartment complex. Here tons of people just hang out outside in the complex. But there were these kids running around and they ran up to me and said, "Hey you look just like a spy ninja". I definitely took that as a compliment. They said, "But your friend, nope". Idk what makes me a spy ninja but it feels good to be recognized as something cool. I told them I would learn how to backflip and come back and teach them. I also gave them silly bands so they liked me. 

Well yeah see another crazy week. Tons and tons of missionary work and I love it. Also some good memories and now since I told you them you are also involved in my memories. Welcome. Well I hope you had and will have a good week. Thanks for tuning in. Till next time. 

Elder Slay

Elder Spy Ninja

Elder Raw Onion

Elder I Found A Toad This Week On The Ground And Tried To Scare People. I Guess People Here See Those A Lot And It Didn't Scare Anyone. It Just Peed On Me. That's All. 

Jeffery R Holland 

The ministry of Angels

We are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.

Just read this talk. yee haw 

ดังนั้นพวกเขาจึงบอกว่าทุกอย่างใหญ่กว่าในเท็กซัส วันนี้ผมไปปั๊มน้ำมันที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในโลก  เรียกว่าบัคกี้และว้าวพวกเขาไม่ได้โกหก  เท็กซัสชอบของใหญ่

So they say everything is bigger in Texas. Today I went to the biggest gas station in the world. It's called Buccees and wow they didn't lie. Texas does like big stuff

Welcome to Elder Slay and Elder Wind are in a meeting with the mission and 

I decided to take a picture of us. Good for me.

This is me. This is when I was being told no you just can't hear because you are congested. boring. c'mon doc give me the bad news.

 

We went to this families house but they showed up an hour late with KFC 

so we talked to the husband about cars and cats for too long. They had 15 cats so we had s lot to talk about apparently. Also in allergic to cats so that was and A+ moment for me. 

We are friends. Meet Elder Slavens, meet Elder Maires, meet Elder Minor, meet Elder Winder. 

Now that you know us please  introduce yourself. Thanks. 

Happy birthday Elder Winder. Enjoy still being a teenager. Being an adult is so much cooler. 

I love family. Happy mother's day momma. Also the baby is Indie. She is almost 10 pounds 

so she's a little chunky and needs to cut off the carbs. Keto here she comes. 

OK this video is the beginning of the end of the onion game. This was bite 1 of maybe 9 in a day. 

                                                                Good work me!  

Oh Slay where have you been?

 สวัสดีครับ Hello Howdy 

WHAT'S UP. ELDER SLAY IS BACK. 

All I can say is man what a wild past few months. So you may want an update on my life. I can give you an update if you want. I guess here it is. So we got crazy times around us right. Well I've been reassigned again and now I am serving in the Texas Houston East Mission. HUH? Yeah. I got here just a little bit ago and man it's been a crazy last few days.

So first I will say sorry if you have missed me but don't you worry I have returned and I will never ever leave you again. I'm here for good and I'm here for you. 

Now Texas. Yee haw am I right. Texas is a wild place. So my mission is a little part of Houston all the way to like the middle of Louisiana. Right now I am serving in Houston East it's in this place called Pasadena. I like to call it Stinkadena because you know it smells bad. But Texas is always very humid it will start randomly raining and there are always bugs everywhere. There are cockroaches at dinners, there are cockroaches in our kitchen, it's basically pretty cool not going to lie. I laugh every time I see a bug and they are everywhere so I'm gonna lose my laugh box like Spongebob in that one episode where Squidward tells him if he laughs too much he won't be able to anymore. Wish me luck.

Alright here are some of my favorite moments. 

We do service for this old guy every week and he just sells metal for fun. Like his hobby is selling metal. Interesting I know. We loaded his truck with hundreds of pounds and he got an astonishing $22. I may need to join the fun metal club.  

Our apartment smells like cigarettes and is the jankiest apartment I've ever been in. The shower is black, the dish washer doesn't work, the sink is falling apart, the blinds have fallen off 2 times already so we gave up, there's a pipe aiming towards the shower that just says the word pipe and I don't know what comes out of it but idk if I wanna know. Oh yeah and again we have cockroaches so they are going to call people to deep clean this place and roach bye bye this place. Good for them and us. 

Ok now some others things that aren't part of that list but just are memorable I guess idk. 

We went to this guys house for his birthday party. He is 41. We had pizza and cheesecake and he told us about his xbox and his games and how much he loves rootbeer floats for maybe 35 minutes. A pretty good conversation. Also he sneezed and I saw the cloud of sneeze stuff fly. Luckily it was straight to the ground. Still kinda exciting. 

We talked to this girl named Sylvia and it was such a sad phone call. People are very open and happy to talk and really tell you all of their problems and issues. It's really cool how humble and open people are but I don't like sad conversations. But we are teachers of happiness and God's plan so ultimately we are the right people to call. 

Oh yeah my companions name is Elder Winder. He is from Highland Utah and is friends with some people I served in Gilbert with. Small world am I right. I love him and we get along so well. We have the same personality so you already know we are wild but reverent boys. 

Yeah so it has been a pretty weird readjustment to go from one mission to another but it has been pretty exciting. God needs me here for something and I am just going to do what it takes to do that thing. Even though Texas is pretty open and everything is bigger in Texas we are still not able to knock on random doors or just talk to people on the street so we are working from our apartment but are having lots of lesson and dinners. It's my favorite. I'm way happy and excited to be here. Texas is probably the most opposite thing from Arizona so it's been so funny seeing opposites of everything. I have really learned so much in this little time I have been here and excited to keep living it up and working as hard as I can every day in ol' Texas. Yee haw sir yee haw. 

Love you all lots. I just have to say one thing. Not going to lie I don't really like the word y'all at all for some reason just doesn't fit my personality but I feel I have to say it at least once here. So I love y'all. Ok glad that's over with. I've missed you guys. Email me. Say hi to me, or howdy whatever you would like. Never forget I love Spongebob, I love Michael Bublé, I love corn dogs a lot, and I love being a missionary. Have a wonderful week. 

Elder Slavens

Elder Slay Is Back

Elder Yee Haw

Elder Also Howdy Cause Texas

Elder Laugh At Bugs In Texas Cause There Are A Lot Of Them. 

ผมพนันได้เลยว่าคุณพลาดข้อความภาษาไทยเหล่านี้ไม่ใช่คุณพวกเขากลับมาดีและไม่ต้องกังวลว่ามันจะชั่วขณะหนึ่งแต่ผมยังใช้ Google แปลว่าเขียนเหล่านี้ไทยเป็นเรื่องยาก

I bet you have missed these Thai messages haven't you. Well they are back. And don't worry its been awhile but I still am using google translate to write these. Thai is hard

Alma 24:27 I like this lots. I know that yeah God does work in many many mysteries ways for the salvation of His people. That may be why I'm here to save me and help me save others. I love it and this scripture lots. 

This is me with my companion and my mission president and his wife. My companion is the one to the right of me if you were wondering. Just had to clear that up. 

Luckily it's warm here so I don't have to be cold cause I dislike being cold but crazy Elder Winder still wears sweaters. Silly boy. 

This is our pipe that says pipe. I really don't get it or get what it does. I've asked my companion and he doesn't know either. I guess we will find out when pudding or something comes out idk. 

Giddy up. Yee haw. Howdy partner. G'devening laddie. 

Animals. They got animals here. This snapping turtle tried to eat my frisbee what a mean guy. 

Don't worry we put him back in the lake after this image was taken. No need to fear friend! 

That awkward moment when you go to someone's house for dinner and they say, 

"Hey go make our chili and beans". Yes sir yee haw.