The Subject Line Is the Hardest Part

Well, it's official! The transfer is imminent, and things are about to be ALLL mixed up 'cause of it. The whole Kimberly Stake is in fact moving into an entirely different Zone, so it was necessary to find a new place to have the Zone Leader area go. As I though, it'll be moved to Filer. HOWEVER, unlike what I expected, I will not be going there with Elder Brock. I'm being transferred to smack dab in the middle of Twin Falls! The big league! The real deal! The holy land! SO hey, that should be fun. I've been moving around so much recently though that transfers are like no big deal at this point. So I suppose it's just time to move on! Bring it, Twin. Show me what you're made of.

This was a good week! It was mainly filled with prepping for the big change. Ya see, all of our ward mission leaders are new, so we've been working like mad to make sure that everything's good to go so that nobody slips through the cracks with the whitewash. What stress. We also had a big meeting this week about talking to everyone in our path, so Elder Brock and I made a pact (a pinky swear, no less) that we would do just that! So we took a solid hour and a half the other day to just walk around and talk to a billion people that we ran into.

Man, that is what missionary work is all about! People aren't out and about very much in Idaho, so we don't have many of those stand-in-the-town-center-and-talk-to-the-millions-of-people-that-pass-by experiences, but it was a beautiful day and there were people all over the place, so it was real nice to just walk around and bug people! It is pretty funny how bugged people get sometimes, but then other times people are just so willing to talk and listen. We talked to this Christian dude who said he used to talk to missionaries but he eventually had them removed from his property for trespassing. He wasn't very nice. But it's all good. That's life. We then walked up to this group of teenage kids on BMX bikes and started kicking it with them for a bit. They said they were chill with Jesus so we talked about Him and shared a scripture and it was very chill. Good times.

My brain is turning to mush so I need to wrap this up. Basically I love my mission 'cause I get to tell people about the most important message in the whole entire universe, and I grow to love these people because I actually want them to understand it. If I don't let them know what's up, that's on me! Oh dang! Anyway, I hope you all have a gorgeous fantastic splendid beautiful week!

Elder Slavens

Mah peeps

 And I don't even walk that much.

Meetings, blah.

Silly Forgetful Elder Slavens

Wow I totally missed sending out an email last week! Whoopsies! That's what happens when you're dumb like me sometimes.

Actually something really great happened last week! We had the miracle/blessing of seeing one of our investigators baptized! His name's Martin and he's on fire. He actually just recently moved to Kimberly from a more western part of the mission and was being taught by the Elders over there and was like straight up ready to go when he got here. Pretty cool stuff! Whadda guy. So we petty much just tied it all off and finished the lessons. But he's doing great and all that good stuff.

We had a cool big meeting this past week where all the leaders of the mission (District Leaders, Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders and trainers) got together and were taught how to be a leader and do it the Lord's way. It was really cool to discuss all the different ways the Savior led and how we can emulate Him. I'm still pretty awful, that's for sure, but hey, I'm definitely working at it and getting better!

Man, there is a lot of chill stuff happening in our area. Since all of the crazy ward changes and stuff things have been rough and our teaching pool small, but all of our ward mission leaders are called and they're PUMPED like yolked and souped up and it's the best. They're so excited to get things moving and we're expecting big things soon. Too bad Elder Brock and I are leaving.

WHAT?? I'M LEAVING?? Yeah, probably. It's only been one transfer, I know, but our whole stake is more likely than not to get moved into another zone this transfer, and we, being the zone leaders, need to be moved into another area. So if that all goes according to President Curtis' current plan, Elder Brock and I'll be packing up our bags and moving out this next week. To Filer, Idaho, most likely. Which is funny, because it's the town RIGHT next to Buhl, my first area! So I suppose it's only fitting that my (probably) last area is in that spot. Kinda cute, huh?

So yeah, that's my life right now. I guess we'll see where that all goes. More info to come! STAY TUNED 'CAUSE I KNOW YOU'RE SO INTERESTED. Love you all muah peace out!

Elder Slavens

Sick of It All

Yeah, I'm sick, guys. Not of the mission, though, geez, chill out. The missionary I went on an exchange with and got the pen with was sick out of his mind and he shoved it on me. Barnacles. It's all good though, I'm cooling off. My voice is just like super dead and that makes it pretty hard to teach proper lessons and stuff. Very annoying. But hey, whatch'a gonna do? Mah laff ees goot.

This week. Gah. I don't even know. OH HEY. I have another story from last week that I forgot to tell 'cause I was so preoccupied with my new pen. So check it out: My companion and I have been pretty good about working out recently 'cause we're both on the downward slope and wanna not be super fat when we get back. So we been hitting up that P90X 'cause the guy on it says it'll make make me rock hard. Putting that to the test. ANYWAY I DIGRESS (surprise surprise). We were working out one night and Elder Brock's benching two fat dumbbells rather than doing push-ups 'cause he's cooler than me. I'm doing push-ups like the guy calls for 'cause I'm smart as well as obedient and suddenly I hear this huge BANG-CLANG-DONG-SHING-BAM-KABOOM and I'm like awwwwwww, crap. I look over and Elder Brock's covering up his face with his hands and blood is EVERYWHERE AHHHHHHHH!! Long story short (pssssh, yeah right, Elder Slavens) he dropped a weight on his face and cracked two of his teeth basically in half. So that was pretty funny, I guess. We went to the dentist's office and I sat there for like 2 hours as Elder Brock had his face reconstructed (it's really not as bad as I make it out to be, but still kinda bad). He's all better though. Thank goodness we weren't in Cambodia 'cause it would be a lot harder to fix a prollem like that so Dallin, be careful in the hood, ya hear?

But anyway, really not tons happened this week. Due to my sickness I've been taking it pretty easy. We're still working through all the crazy ward changes and just trying to get to know people above all else. So yeep, that's me. Peace out fools. I say that with the utmost love.

Elder Slavens

Stuff We All Get

That's what SWAG stands for, for those of us who are behind the times.

You wanna know why that's my subject line? Ah, well I have a story to tell in that case.

I went on an exchange with Elder Van Leeuwen this week, companion to one of the District Leaders in our Zone. Our dinner appointment for that evening was the Scout Auction/chili feed the ward was putting on. So we went to this feed excited to just chill out a bit and eat some chili and get to know the members and non-members attending. We had no idea we'd be, like, the center of the show...

So we got there and everybody was shaking our hands and stuff, you know, just happy to see the handsome missionaries. And suddenly the dude in charge of all of it announced that we'd be the judges for the chili contest. I'm like ah crap, now we're 'bout to tick off everyone who loses. But whatever. We tasted all the chili and made a choice and it was said and done. The winner was awarded a thing of Tums.

Then the auction was about to start. We looked around at all the stuff being sold and I found these dope pens and I was like man, it'd be cool to have one of those. So a member walked up and asked, "So what's something that strikes you fancy?" I was like, "Well those pens are pretty chill, but you're not allowed to buy me one or anything." He responds with, "Elder, I will pay whatever is necessary to get you one of those dang pens. In fact, I'll get your companion one too. I brought a bunch of money just so I could do something like this." I figured I couldn't talk him out of it, so I decided to wait. Keep in mind, these pens typically run you 50 bucks when it's not a Scout Auction, but I was like if this is what he wants, I won't fight it!

So the auction begins and this dude is just going crazy. Spending like 50 bucks on cinnamon rolls, 45 bucks on a plate of cookies, you name it, he bought it. Then came out the pens. The bidding started out at 25 bucks, and this guy found himself in like a battle with another dude to get these fancy pens. You wanna know what he bought the pens for? 275 DOLL HAIRS. EACH. He gave us the pens and everybody just stared at us and I wanted to die. But hey, I have a cool pen now.

Dang that was a long story. But that's kinda how my week went. So yeah. Now my hands are dead. Peace out, everyone. I love you all hugs and kisses muah!

Elder Slavens

The pen to end all pens

Mater lives in my area. We're tryna start teaching him.

Complete Chaos

That describes my week properly I think. I'm now in my new area, not actually Twin Falls itself. I'm technically a Zone Leader of the Twin Falls South Zone, but I'm actually serving in a town called Kimberly, and though it's not Twin, it's still way bigger than like any dang place I've served in. Quite a change of pace. Which is chill; it's what I was hoping for!

Life was crazy this week. Basically the moment I showed up there was a huge change in our Stake borders, so we had like literally no work for the first part of the week, 'cause there were no ward councils or even bishoprics to let us know where to start! Soooooooo we had to ride it out until Sunday, when finally a TON of sustainings took place and new ward councils were put into place. And that very day we got tons of lists from the clerks and stuff that include info about part-member families, prospective elders, and children of record who were never baptized, and NOW WE ARE ON FIRE. Yesterday we hit the ground hard, and were were flipping RUNNING to get everywhere. It was crazy. We met a bunch of part-member families (most of whom were uninterested, but whatevs) and it was a blast. So we're gonna try and keep this up.

So yee, that's me. Not too much else this time around. We'll have more next week. Peace out chillins.

Elder Slavens