VALENTINE'S DAY WOOT WOOT oh wait...

WHADDUPPPPPPPP. How's it going wherever you are? My life is ON FIRE. Like, good fire. Like green fire that just tickles and makes you happy. ON FIRE. 

It's been a great week, as you can tell. Things are finally starting to calm down after all the crazy stuff that threw our lives for a loop last week. We went to the funeral service of the lady I mentioned last time, and it was absolutely beautiful. She's certainly in a better place, and it was such a hopeful, bright service that you couldn't help but smile walking out.

On Saturday I had an incredible experience. I had the privilege of going to the temple with our recent convert, Luis, and his wife Roxann, to do baptisms for the dead. Holy cow it was so great. It's been forever since I've participated in baptisms for the dead! And although I wasn't actually allowed to get in the water to do the baptisms (mission rule, I dunno), I still got to do confirmations and just soak up the spirit that was there. It was way enjoyable. After that they took us out to a sushi place in Twin. An ALL YOU CAN EAT sushi place. I haven't had sushi in quite some time and figured I'd hate it. But I actually like shushi a lot now! Mom, you should be proud! I'm finally eating weird things after ALL THESE YEARS! Problem with this place was that if you order too much sushi and don't end up finishing it you have to pay for the whole roll you don't finish. And naturally we ordered way too much but couldn't bear paying extra money for it so it was a fight to the death to get all the sushi down the hatch. I almost blew up all over the restaurant, and after such a peaceful experience in the temple Luis and Roxann started fighting over who had to eat the last piece (this isn't uncommon though, they're constantly fighting about something; it's how they express their love I guess). So that was fun.

Other than that it's been a pretty normal week. Mainly just saying goodbye to people 'cause I'm leaving. Wait, what? I didn't tell you I was leaving? Oh, well I guess that ruins the surprise. But yeah, I'm outta here! Only spent 3 months in Carey, which is way short, but I'll go where He wants me to go! My new area will be TWIN FALLS SOUTH! Going from basically the smallest town in the mission to the biggest. At least it'll prepare me for my re-entry into the Bay Area. 'Cause Carey is SMALL. So I'm pumped about this. New start, new places, new faces, the works. I'll still be a Zone Leader down there which I'm pumped about. Two transfers with this new guy, one more in some random spot, then I'll be heading home! How bonkers is that?

Anyway, I've had a great week. Life's good, just taking it a day at a time and soaking up every second. I've had a blast in Carey, but I can't wait to have some new experiences! I hope you all have a good week too! Peace out! 

Elder Slavens

Freaky Friday

Okay, guys, this is for real. Did the rest of you have like the weirdest Friday in the whole world? Elder Chase and I are convinced that there was some sort of wrinkle in the time/space continuum that smoothed out on Friday and it caused some sort of tidal wave of destiny. I have no idea how to explain this. I guess I'll just tell you about all of the loco circumstances that ignited this form of thinking.

So check it. We left our house on Friday and it was a totally normal-feeling day. In fact, I was feeling pretty good. But as we started visiting people I came to realize that this was FAR from a normal day. We first visited a family who seemed pretty down. We asked them what was up, and they explained that a lady had just died that they were super close too. Now the odd thing about this was that this woman was completely healthy. She was maybe 60 and she exercised well every day. But she had to go in for knee surgery this week, and in order to make the surgery as not traumatic as possible they induced a temporary coma. The surgery went well, and they did whatever procedure you do to wake someone up from a coma, and it didn't work. She wasn't coming out of the induced coma! And she never did. She stopped breathing, for 45 whole minutes, and when they got her to start again the doctors declared she was brain-dead and without warning her husband was asked to choose to put her on life support or let her go, but either way it was over. Wow, it was such a sad deal. The whole town is in shambles over it, 'cause she was an elementary school teacher that every single kid had and they all loved her. So sad.

We then found out about another woman in town who had almost the exact same experience - the only thing that was different was that she survived the ordeal and everybody's shouting praises to God that she's alive. Another member woman we went to visit was like overly sick and we gave her a blessing. Another recent convert we saw broke down and told us her daughter has just been diagnosed with cancer and she can't afford to lose another kid, so we gave her a blessing as well. On the road a car in front of us randomly swayed off the side of the road and we thought someone might be hurt; thankfully everyone was okay. We visited with a member of one of our bishoprics who expressed that his sister-in-law had just passed away so he wouldn't be able to make church. The bishop of the other ward randomly started having problems balancing and went to get checked - come to find out his head is filling up with blood and they need to drill into his head to relieve the pressure. Another woman asked for a blessing because she's going in for surgery on Tuesday to have something fixed that the doctors messed up on her face when they removed a cancerous mole, so we did that. Right after the blessing she told us she's made the decision to divorce her husband because he's an alcoholic and suicidal.

And on and on and on with things like this! I'm not joking, this all happened on the same day! It was one of the craziest days of my whole life and I still am pretty shaken up over it all. It's really sad to see people having so many difficulties, but one thing is for certain: this is a good time to be a missionary. It baffles me how many times we were called upon to give blessings, and the requests are still coming. We were able to offer service to all these people and we have some appointments set to help them out. It's cool to see how the Lord certainly puts us right in the way of all of these tragedies and allows us to be His mouthpiece to help these people understand that He loves them and wants them to be happy. We all just need to have trust that His plan is greater than ours!

So that's what my week was like. Certainly a weird one. Hopefully your week was a bit more... I dunno... consistent? Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful week! Jesus loves you!

Elder Slavens

We Got Stuff Goin' On In Carey Sucka

What a week! I've loved every minute of it and now I think I am dead, so thank goodness it's p-day!

Big news first. Remember Lonny, the cowboy of cowboys? Well that baptism ACTUALLY HAPPENED AND IT WAS SO GOOD. Like a hundred people showed up in support of him, since like everybody in town knows the guy. He's basically famous 'round here, so he's a good one to have on our team. But anyway, Lonny is as ready as any man I've ever seen to really, REALLY follow Christ. He knows this church is true as well as he knows horses are true. It's so cool to see this change take place in people. Life is good.

We also had a Zone Meeting this week with a focus on giving peeps commitments! I love extending commitments to fools. As we invite people to make changes in their life, we are literally inviting them to repent and become a new creature in Christ. I love that idea. My favorite part about being on my mission is seeing people change. So that's what we're gonna work on! We're gonna teach these people how to change! And through that they will learn their true potential as sons and daughters of God and they WILL BE FIXED!! WOOT WOOT.

So that's about it for my week. Sure, it doesn't sound like much, but I tell ya, I AM DEAD. So dead I don't even remember how to write an entertaining email. But it's all good. I'll just tell you all the good stories when I get home. Love ya all much much much! Go get some Val's for me and I'll live my dreams through you. Peace out.

Elder Slavens

I know I'm fat don't make fun of me I'll kill you with my bare hands.

My Week Was Better Than Yours

It's true. Unless of course you yourself were visited by an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. 'Cause I totally was.

I KNOW, RIGHT??? This week, we had a mission conference in Twin Falls in which Elder M. Russel Ballard of the Quorum of the 12 visited us and taught us some things that I'll not soon forget. He was joined by Elder Nash of the 70 and together they straight up knocked all of our socks off. This is probably going to cover the vast majority of what I will talk about today, so if you don't want to hear about Apostles you can leave.

WOAH I found these cool emojis why the heck have I not been using them?   

Anyway. I'mma try to summarize this, 'cause they talked about so much cool stuff I thought I might die, and I don't want to hurt you guys. Elder Nash was the first to speak, and I'll be 100% honest, I was kinda thinking "C'mon man, I wanna hear Elder Ballard talk, get down!" But boy was I wrong. He started by asking us three questions: 

1. "Why do missionaries wear nametags, and why are the nametags so important?" There was some really great discussion about how our nametags separate us from the world, and they show to everyone that we truly do represent Christ. I mean, how can we not? His name itself is on our badge! Hopefully that shows the world something! I'm not a cashier, or a waiter. I'm a representative of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and there is definitely a difference. I need to act accordingly!

2. "What does it mean to be a representative of Christ?" Elder Nash taught us that our job is not just to knock on doors and baptize people, but it is todo and say everything that Christ would if He were here. This led perfectly into his final question.

3. "What would Christ be doing if He were here in the Idaho Twin Falls Mission?" Holy dang that makes you think, doesn't it? Definitely made me think. Elder Nash shared some verses from 3rd Nephi chapter 11, about the coming of Christ to the American continent, and he asked us to consider what He did there, and how that might translate to Twin Falls if He were to take a trip to the potato state. We concluded that if Christ were here, He would testify of Himself and His father, and would invite the people to make covenants and choices that would lead them back to Him. So naturally, that's what WE should be doing! I thought that was way cool.

AND THEN Elder Ballard stood up and proceeded to spout pure gold for and hour and a half. For real. I'll try and make this quick. No promises. 

He started by telling us that enthusiasm and excitement make for infectious and contagious desires to work. If we can wake up, on time, with a big smile on our face and high hopes in our heart, our day will play out accordingly. But if we let ourselves be angry and grumpy, we can be sure that's how our day will stay. He then moved on to the relationship that faith, knowledge, boldness, and fun all have with one another. Here's the recipe: Faith is what drives this work. As we increase our faith and receive revelation, we gain a sound knowledge of gospel concepts. Knowledge leads to confidence in ourselves and in the restored gospel, which in turn helps us to be bold. If you're confident in what you're saying, you're comfortable with being bold in saying it. When we're bold enough, we can't pass peeps on the street without sharing the gospel with them. And as we follow that pattern, soon enough we'll just be having a blast day to day sharing what we believe with others. Pretty cool. According to Elder Ballard his grandkids get all embarrassed of him all the time 'cause he's always trying to talk to people in restaurants and whatnot about church. That's pretty chill.

Okay, here's his final point I'll share 'cause I'm getting carpal tunnel. But he gave us a solid amount of time to ask questions, and I took advantage of that like HECKA quick. I asked Elder Ballard how I might more fully put off the natural man, because that's something all of us struggle with. He looked right into my soul and I felt one of the craziest feelings ever. My hear was going THIS fast, and yet I felt so calm and at peace. He talked right at me for like 10 minutes and it was just a really cool moment for me. He explained that as we lose ourselves in the service of others we forget the natural man and are just more happy in general. We're spiritual entities learning to live in physical bodies, not the other way around. I thought that was so cool.

Anyway, I'll wrap up my thoughts there. But probably my favorite part of the whole deal was the very end. He got up to leave and turned to President Curtis. He said, "Well, now you need to deal with them. I get to go home," then he turned back to us and said, "Adios, amigos! Hasta luego!" And then he was gone. I almost died I was laughing so hard. Respect.

So yup, that's what happened to me this week! And I'm dead so I'll cover other stuff next week. Have a wonderful week and don't forget who you are! Baiiiiiiii.

Elder Slavens 

Daaaaaaang, What Even Happened This Week. Uhhhhhhhh.

That's kinda what my week has been like. Fortunately I have more time this week to put my thoughts together than I did last, so this one should, if nothing else, be a more interesting read. Prolly.

On Tuesday I went on an exchange in the glorious city of Challis, ID, which is pretty much the most in the middle-of-nowhere place I can name, beside perhaps Carey. This exchange turned out to be a real adventure 'cause that area has recently been whitewashed, not with just two new Elders, but THREE. Thus, during that exchange there were 4 missionaries stomping around town, which is never a good thing. Anyway, it was a pretty chill exchange. We taught this one super politically-involved woman who would relate any gospel topic we introduced to politics and somehow start talking about presidents and legislatures and judges and blaaaaaaah for like hours until we found a nice spot to bring it back in. That was an adventure in and of itself.

Our area's doing super well right now and we're pumped to be a part of it. We're well aware that it has basically nothing to do with us, once again, but it's really nice to see the fruits sprouting up. Like I said last week, we have a couple really solid investigators with baptismal dates that are just on SUPA HOT BURNING FAYA. We first have Lonny. He's so ready to be baptized. Lonny knows what's up. He's your typical cowboy, and in the past lived your typical cowboy lifestyle. He used to ride bulls and win huge tournaments and head to the bar afterward and party 'til he was purple. But he's made a big flip - he still rides bulls, but in celebration he now returns home with his wife and they read together from the Book of Mormon. Pretty cool stuff. He has a date for the 31st of this month and I think he couldn't be more pumped about it.

This past week Lonny took us out onto the ranch he works at and had us help him feed the calves. Holy moly I've never seen so many baby cows in my life I thought, I was gonna die. It was pretty chill 'cause we rode out onto the field by way of sleigh pulled by horses - the old-fashioned way. I thought that was pretty cool. So yeah.

Our other FAYA investigator is Bryan Wood. He's going through a break-up with his wife and this time in his life has brought him to some serious reflection. He wants to do everything he can to make sure he's on God's side, so he asked us to come teach him. I think that's pretty cool, don't you?? Just a cool dude. We set a baptismal date with him for the 14th of February - Valentine's Day. Kinda weird date, I know, but when the Lord tells you to set a date for Valentine's Day, you set a date for Valentine's Day.

Anyway, that's what up at the moment! I'm about to have one of the most eventful couple of weeks in my whole mission life, so I'll prolly have lots to write next week. Stay tuned, fools! Have a great week and never forget that Jesus loves you! Muah!

Elder Slavens

On the sleigh with mah burrs.

Elder Chase buck that hay.

Life Is Still Chill

Why hello everyone! So good to see you! Well, write you, I guess. All the same.

This week has been wunnnnnderful. Elder Chase and I are well aware that it has very little to do with us, but we've been blessed to see some seerusmiracles this past week. We had two guys basically set their own baptismal dates, which is like unheard of. Particularly unheard of in a teensie little town like Carey, in which everyone knows one another. We tell people that these guys have set baptismal dates and everyone's all "Nah man, I know that guy, there's no way," and we're like "Brah, Jesus can do stuff like this." And He is! It's crazy.

Anyway, dang! I kinda gotta run off to do an activity of some sort, so I'll update you on all that another day!! Peace out and live long! mUAH!

Elder Slavens

AHHHHHH BLAH I GOTTA GO FASSSST

Yeah, one of those days I guess. We ran down to Twin to do some shopping and were gonna be there for like an hour but that turned into 5 and now we're rushing to get everything else done, whoops! But yeah, it's been a chill week. Transfers just hit and it looks like I'm sticking it out in Carey for a bit which is no surprise.

This week we set a baptismal date for a dude named Bryan Wood who basically just appeared out of nowhere! Huge blessing, considering he's one 600th of the people in this tiny little Idaho town. We're pumped for him. More info to come!

Bahhhhhh yeah I should probably bail. Sorry, errbuddy! We'll try harder next time! Hugs and kisses!

Elder Slavens

The Merriest Christmas!!

Well hello there my fellow humans! How have you been this Christmas week?? I sure hope it's been swell, 'cause if not there's not really much I can do to help out! But hey, mine was wonderful, so maybe that'll bring a smile to yo faces? :)

Anyway, again, it was a wonderful week. Christmas was very good here in little ole Carey, Idaho. Dang, these people feed us way too well. But that's chill, I'll just work out when I get home, I guess. Hopefully. But yeah, Christmas was really good this year! We basically just did this house-hop thing where we ran all over the dang town and visited as many members as possible and shared Christmas messages with all uh them. We wanted to make a point to help people remember the true Reason for the Season, even on the very day that everybody gets all wrapped up in unwrapping. Ya feel? All the kids were like 'Presentspresentspresents", so we busted in there like bosses and were all like "Naw man, Jesusjesusjesus!!!" And they ATE IT UP. We had a blast just visiting everyone we possibly could and reading Luke 2 with 'em, as well as sharing the story of Samuel the Lamanite's prophesy of the coming of Christ and all that good stuff. Hopefully we did some good there!

The members in the area gave us so much food this past week I have no idea what to do with all of it. Way stressed out about that, but I guess we'll live. I think we have like 100 plates of fudge, which I can only eat like piece-by-piece in order to avoid dying from over-consumption of super-charged, ultra-dense chocolate juice. Dang I'm 'bout to get so fat.

Other than that, it's been a fairly normal week. To be honest with you, the work in Carey is pretty dang slow. You see, there's only like 600 people that live here, so everybody knows like actually literally everyone, and almost all of them are members already to begin with. So finding new people to teach is a pretty rare occurrence, but we're trying at it!! And now that Luis has been baptized, we only have a couple of people who are even remotely close to reaching that point, so we're working real steady-like with them and trying to really bring the spirit to help them get there.

The slowness, however, is almost a blessing in disguise, considering how often we have to be out of our area running around doing administrative business. The fact that not tons is going on in our area means that we don't have to stress tons about conflicting schedules and whatnot. So that's chill. Still, I can definitely see potential here, so let's get to it!

Tha's 'bout it for me, folks. It's been a really good week and I'm pumped for more to come! Peace out, muah!

Elder Slavens

Friday the 13th VS. Christmas

The battle of the century. And I was caught right in the middle of it, gosh dangit! Now, of course, Friday the 13th didn't actually happen this week, but it sure felt like it. So I think Friday the 13th was jealous of all these cool holidays going on as of late and it decided to make a ruckus and try to ruin Christmas. For that I call it a battle.

But before we get into THAT, I just wanna take a moment and update you on all the travels Elder Chase and I have undertaken this week. Holy moly we had a lot on our plate! So as Zone Leaders, as I believe I've previously stated, we must go on exchanges with all of the District Leaders in our zone once a transfer, which can get a little hairy in a zone like ours. ESPECIALLY when we're required to do baptismal interviews for the investigators of the district leaders as well. So here's what went down: This week we had plans to go on exchanges with a District Leader relatively close to us, but then we found out that we had to do a baptismal interview in Salmon, which is that town that's like a million miles from Carey. So in order to save miles for the rest of the month we had to change that exchange up like a day before it happened. So we ended up turning this 1-day exchange into a 4-day adventure all around our dang zone and we drove for SUCH A LONG TIME I thought I was gonna die. But we ended getting all our stuff done so that was chill.

I think that story didn't even make sense. Sorry about that.

ANYWAY, on to the bad luck.

This Saturday we had a baptism!! Now obviously that's not bad luck. But I feel like all of the preparation for that dang baptism was just riddled with bad juju. Every corner I turned I was afraid a piano would fall on me or something, that's how serious it was! I guess that's an exaggeration, but let me explain. Saturday started and we were pumped to go do some contacting and bring some peeps closer to Christ. Well no dang body was there!! So we were running around most of the day just trying to find people to talk to which simply was not working.

We eventually got a call from our Mission President asking about some toys left us by another missionary a while back... Apparently a missionary gave the Zone Leaders here (before I showed up) a bag full of little model Star Wars spaceships that we were to give to another missionary. We were never given any sort of time by which this baggie needed to be given to its owner, so we just kinda had it. Well the President called asking where it was and we were like dang, where is it?? So we searched like every place we could think of for it, and it was nowhere to be found! So we were like oh no, what if we threw it away on accident?? So we went outside to the dumpster and started searching through it for these dumb toys. Here we are digging through this dumpster just ticked off out of our minds 'cause of these toys, and apparently some dude thought that was pretty funny. So funny that he walked over from across the street and started taking pictures of us on his smart phone. He asked us to wave for the camera, and for a second I thought Elder Chase was gonna jump out of the dumpster and kill the dude. The guy ended up bailing and we gave up on the dumpster dive. We walked into the house and THERE IT FREAKING WAS - the baggie of spaceships just chilling on the floor in our apartment behind a couple of random things. Oh man that was bad luck.

We then found out that we had been nominated to do a musical number during church the next day so we had to take a bunch of time and make one up and that was just too much!! But we figured it out 'cause I'm a genius (not).

We also were to fill the baptismal font because it's not a Stake calling here - someone just needs to do it. So we started doing that and the water was FREEZING so we had to go into the room that's like the heart of the church and mess with the cogs and whatnot to get the heater working. Once the font was full we realized there were like a million little bugs in it, so we had to find a net to skim them all out. We did, and got those filthy bugs out, and I put the net back where it went and as I dropped it it slipped into a giant hole in the floor that I hadn't been paying attention to and I think it got like ground into a million pieces, I have no idea. That was just so random and such bad luck. At that point I thought I might as well just sit down and cry. But I'm too tough for that.

Then I got sick BAHAHAHAHA like what?? Man, my life. So I was like well so much for the musical number! But it was too late, so I just had to deal.

And THENNN the baptism happened. And it was BEAUTIFUL! Everything went PERFECT!! It was one of the best baptismal programs I've ever seen - Luis, the baptizee (or whaterver you call him) speaks Spanish, so we had a bunch of members who know Spanish participate, and the program ended up being half-English, half-Spanish, which was super cool and I think Luis appreciated it tons. I had the opportunity to confirm him the next day, and it was so great. A Christmas miracle!! Whew.

So yeah, it's been one of those weeks. Oh yeah, and my camera broke this week too, so I have no pictures. Sucks. But hey, life is good!

Peace out errywun.

Elder Slavens

On the Road Again

Holy moly you guys, Carey is so dang far from everything!! This week has been totally full of just driving all over the place - so much so that we've hardly had any time to do actual work in our area! Blah. But it's all good, we had some really cool stuff going on this week and I'm feeling totally refreshed for some good proselyting in the Carey area!

Like I said, this week was all full of driving. On Wednesday we went and picked up another companionship of missionaries in an area like 45 minutes from us, then we turned around and went all the way back down to Twin Falls for a Christmas conference. It was a way cool conference and I loved being able to see all mah bros. There were a lot of really good spiritual thoughts given and afterward there was a mission talent show. Last year for the show I borrowed a guitar from some members and played a song for the mission, which was way fun, but guitars weren't allowed this time around so I wasn't able to do that this year. It's all good though, 'cause there were a bunch of way good talents and it was fun to watch!

After the conference we stayed the night at the AP's house and went to the temple the following day which is always super relaxing and refreshing and whatnot. Good day!

Other than that really not much has gone on. We've been trying to introduce people as much as possible to that new Christmas Initiative the church is putting out, and we've actually seen a lot of good come from it! But thaas 'bout it.

Sorry this is a way boring email, I dunno how to make it interesting! Welp, I'll do my best to get into a bunch of trouble this week so I have good stories next week. How's that sound. You are all wonderful and amazing and very cool and lots of other good stuff!

Elder Slavens

A Chill Week Behind, a Chill Week Ahead

So chill, man. Life in Carey is great. I've had some awesome experiences the past few days that have really helped me see how perfectly in place the Lord puts everything, especially when it comes to missionary work. I definitely know I belong here in Carey serving the Lord, and I wouldn't rather be anywhere right now!

That having been said, I really don't have much time to write today! Whoopsies! But I guess I'll just fill you in on whatever big stuff's going on.

Elder Chase and I are the Leaders of the Carey Zone of the Idaho Twin Falls Mission. Here's a fun fact for you: Our zone is the largest zone, area-wise, in the entire continental US. Hence, we have a lot of ground to cover when we're needed by the District Leaders and stuff like that. We went on an exchange with the District Leader up in Salmon, which is about 4 hours and 45 minutes north of Carey. Holy moly what is my life. It was fun just chillin' with the comp though and talking about everything ever. But yeah, as a Zone Leader in Carey, those tend to be the kinds of things we spend our time on! Which is cool.

We have a couple super solid investigators that I'm stoked to work with. Probably the one with the most progress is a Mexicano named Luis! He's way legit you guys. He's got a baptismal date set for the 20th of this month and is right on track to get that done! We recently taught him a lesson we like to call the 'spiritual vaccination', a very important thing to cover when someone's preparing for baptism. Whenever somebody's preparing to make a big, important choice like baptism, Satan is always right behind them tempting them and opposing them. So people need to be aware that that is going to happen, otherwise they fall real quick. So we talked about recognizing the fruits of the spirit versus the fruits of the devil, and I think he really gets it! Pretty cool seeing the Holy Ghost play His role in the life of Luis as he prepares to take this step! Pray for him por favor!

Luis is our main focus right now, so I don't have TONS to report otherwise. But as things wrap up there I definitely am pumped about a bunch of these other people that are coming out of the woodwork! Life is good. I hope you all enjoy this bootiful week, and remember to SMILE. :)

Peace out,

Elder Slavens

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