The Only Thing I Haven't Done Yet Is Die

Hhhhookayyyyy people! I don't have a ton of time this week because I got on the computer late 'cause I spent my Monday morning doing the chillest thing imaginable for a missionary!

I got to clean the temple today.

The Twin Falls temple is out of commission for the next 2 weeks for remodeling, so President Curtis called us up a few days ago to see if we would be down to help out. I said heck yeah that sounds swag. So we went by in the morning and helped them move around a bunch of furniture so they could re-carpet and re-tile and some other cool jazz. We spent like 2 hours moving desks and chairs and tables and cabinets and all this stuff and it was so crazy being in the temple doing stuff like that. You never picture yourself huffin' and puffin' from manual labor within the temple. But it was such a blessing and a privilege. Easily the most calm and collected I've every felt while moving around way heavy couches and stuff.

When we finished cleaning everything up the custodian dudes said they wanted to take us on a tour so we got to see EVERYTHING. They took us all around and showed us all the fancy inner-workings /underbelly of the temple and it was so crazy to see. You always picture the temple as this super simple place and you just walk in and do baptisms and stuff and then you walk out and it's all chill. But then you go downstairs and see all these levers and plugs and computer screens and vents and grates and and and AND. It was very complex and legit. THEN THEY TOOK US UP TO THE ROOF. We went up to the very top of the temple and there was a door that went INSIDE THE STEEPLE. So we went in there and there was this way tall ladder that led all the way up to the top of the steeple and you could pretty much touch the angel Moroni's feet from inside and dang it was just so cool. It's a shame I couldn't have my camera with me. BUT I did find a cool feather from a bird who had been chilling on top of the temple so I guess I'll hold onto that as a keepsake and just remember it forever. Besides, today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame.

So yeah that's what's up and now my hands are exhausted so I'll wrap it up there. Expect more talk on missionary work next week! You are all the dopest peace out.

Elder Slavens

I've got blistas on me toesies

So I just got a haircut and guess what? When they give you haircuts here, THEY GIVE YOU MASSAGES TOO! Free of charge! Just out of the hospitality of their hearts! The guy also loved the fact that I didn't have facial hair. Sorry I am still a 12 year old girl. 

Today is June 8th, which marks a great day. Today is Ali Lee's birthday. So if any of you have her number, tell her good ole Elder Slavens wishes her the fliest birthday of all. We spent Twin Creeks to Cal High with each other. She is always in my prayers.

This week was rainy. For our preparation day last week, Elder Elieson and I watched Meet the Mormons. Rated in the top 40 documentaries of all time! I also saw the DVD logo hit the corner of the screen afterwards!!!! WAAAAHHHOOOOOO a grand day.

So this week was basically just the best ever because 2 of the people we have been teaching got baptized! YYYEEEE HAAAWWW! They were so into the church! They have seen miracles in their lives from following God's path. One is Chin kuun Thuan, and the other is Srei Mau. THEY R SO CVTE! We have taught Chin kuun Thuan for a while, and a while back we rode out to his house where he farms mangos to teach him. He said "This gospel is a fruit sweeter than any truck full of mangoes" HE IS A WIZARD. Srei Mau is a sassy little fella, and she is going to get married to someone in our branch sooo.... PARTY. It was probably the happiest I've ever been to see them make a step like baptism. Time to go help other people! 

We are trying to find people to teach, and one guy we just talked to on the side of the rode. We didn't get his name, but we refer to him as "Cambodian Jack Sparrow" because he is Cambodian Jack Sparrow. Savy? Can't wait to start teaching him! 

What I love so much about my mission is just crazy things I see. Little kids are always yelling hi to us. Cockroaches just crawl out of peoples scriptures. Everything is dirty and no one wears shoes. Everyone in church just breaks out in arguments and talks on the phone during meetings. But The gospel of Jesus Christ are forming a bond between these people. And I LOVE IT ALL AND NEVER WANT TO LEAVE MISS ME MISS ME NOW YOU GOTTA KISS ME! 

Hey, you have a good week, ok? You promise? Ok. I'll talk to you later.

temple temple big temple temple

​Child development classes came in handy when the guy we were teaching just got up and left and his baby who he said wasn't his baby started crying.  #atamatonREBORN

We call Chin kuun Thuan the Flying squirrel! 

Confessions of a Hoarder

This week, man. It was crazy and life is good and my brain is mush. I think my brain is just permanently mush now 'cause of my mission. I can't think about how to word emails anymore I just kinda go for it and then I read them back afterward and it sounds like crap but I'm like whatever. Life is so hard.

This week we did service for a hoarder. I kid you not, I say hoarder and I mean hoarder. This is one of our investigators we've been seeing for a while, and we could never go visit her at her house because she was embarrassed about the condition of it. We said "Ah naw, don't even worry about it we got you" and she was like "Heck naw my house is gross" but we were all like "Too late here we come" and that's what's up. So we went over with a couple of guys from the ward and daaaaaaaang. It was not super pretty. This lady has like 7 indoor cats and 5 indoor dogs or something crazy like that and none of them are potty-trained so yeah. It reeked. But we got in there and took like 2 days and cleaned it all out and now it smells only a little bit not quite as bad ish. I dunno. It still smells. But we're working on it! The things we missionaries do, man. It's quite something.

We're working on finding new investigators in our YSA ward 'cause our teaching pool is the pits and nobody wants to progress. So we've been going around meeting all the members on the ward directory and asking them for referrals and that's going super well. We've got potentials coming out of our ears so we gotta hop on it and meet all these new people and see if they're down to learn about the gospel. I shall keep you updated.

So yeah that's my life. Take it easy everyone and NEVER FORGET WHO YOU ARE.

Elder Slavens

MY SPINACH PUFFS!

Pull the lever, Elder Slavens! ...WRONG LEVER!!!!! Levers are weird. How does pulling on a lever make a toilet flush? Science is just so awesome. 

I have had some crazy dreams this week. Dreams of people following me. Dreams within dreams. Dreams OUT of dreams... I'm not even sure what is real and what isn't anymore. But what I do know is that teaching is super hard. I never realized how much missionaries taught before I left on my mission. I don't really know what I thought missionaries did. But teaching people is way fun. 

When we were teaching one of our recent converts to the church who is a 12 year old boy, he kept trying to get us to help him with his English homework. So he would show us a paper, point to a picture of a chair, and say "bush?" and I would just DIE. Then he would point to a picture of a dog, and say "bench?" and I would just lay down on the floor and actually die. Having a good laugh with people is   100

One of the Cambodian sister missionaries here told me my body type looked like the Cambodian language. So I went home and cried about that. 

A lot of the people we teach will just randomly leave and say they aren't coming back until like 3 months later. So it has been super fun getting to know people and teaching them about this gospel that I so love and then they just leave, never to be seen by me again, most likely. So It's been hard trying to get someone to stick with us all the way through to becoming a member of the church, but this week we are planning on baptized our one awesome investigator, and another investigator that was given to us by a member here who wants to marry this gurl real bad, but wants her to be a member first. Atta boy. Maybe I can get them to adopt me. Or to adopt Jack Jack. His heelys would be loved here.  

Nothin else. 

Sincerely, Baby Roy's cousin,

Elder Slavens

​Sweet dreams are made of this. A box from my mom, full of flaming hot cheetos limon. 

 ​Elder Elieson and I dropped some major bills at the American store and bought milk and butter to make no bake cookies. If you try it, you'll like it!

A special birthday note from Dallin

Will you tell everyone on dearelderslavens or whatever that it is my birthday soon and that whoever doesn't write me a letter and send it to me immediately so I get it on my birthday isn't my friend? I just want love. That's all. 

Birthday is June 14

dallin.slavens@myldsmail.net

Elder Dallin J Slavens
Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission
House 2B, Street 222
Off Norodom Blvd
PO Box 165
Phnom Penh
Kingdom of Cambodia

All My Clothes Are Falling Apart But Whatever

ANYWAY WHAT'S UP EVERYONE I LOVE YOU

This week has been ultra chill. We've been putting a bigger focus on the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our message to our investigators and it's just stupid crazy. It's like we plucked out their eyes and put new ones in. It's like they FINALLY flipping understand what we're trying to get them to do! It's hecka cool man. So what we've been doing recently is just going to investigators' houses for like 20 or 30 minutes and reading a chapter or two out of the Book of Mormon. We stop here and there as we read and we discuss things that are happening in the story that apply to our own lives and how we can become better by acting on the things we learn. Santa vaca it is so cool how people react to that. And I don't know why I didn't think of it like a bajillion years ago! But we've started this with 4 investigators and it's like the same story every time - the spirit is ridonculously strong and everybody's bawling and yeah.

We visited one investigator who brought a friend with her, with plans to read the Book of Mormon as previously stated. As we read through the story of the sons of Lehi going back to Jerusalem to recover the brass plates from that doofus Laban I brought up that I thought it was cool that no matter how crazy the situation got, Nephi was always willing and stoked to keep trying and be obedient. The friend of our investigator was like "Wait a sec, I got something kinda different from that. It seems like the first two times they tried, Nephi was just all like 'Yeah, I have this cool idea and I think it'll work, so let's try it,' and it never worked out that way. It wasn't until Nephi stepped back and prayerfully considered the situation that it actually worked out and the job got done. Seems to me that Nephi was a little bit prideful at first and needed to be humbled a bit before God would let everything work out." And I was like DAAAAANG THAT IS SO COOL 'cause we all have different points of view and there are so many different ways to think about it and AH! It was dope 'cause I was just like dang, I never even thought about it that way before and I've read this story like a hundred times! So we all learned something and it just goes to show ya that you never stop learning from the Book of Mormon! It was way powerful and I'm stoked to keep having visits like that. Heck yeah.

So yup, that's my life right now. Keep it chill and keep it simple, whatever that means. It's just what's in my brain right now so I typed it. PEACE.

Elder Slavens

I'm from San Francisco

Temple swag

 Classic P-day - Apples to Apples with President Curtis. A straight riot.

Only on a mission is this considered a prank

The real gangsters

The Bebeish is on patrol

Well well well... We meet again. 

This week I got a blister on my big toe. We played soccer on our P-day, and for those of you who know me well, you know I am super competitive and really good at sports. SPORTS! So I played so hard that blood filled my outer layer of flesh on my meat hunks that I walk on all day. But that's ALL GOOD because afterwards we went and had a family home evening with like A TON of giant Cambodian families, and I performed "A Whole New World" for them. That's what they get for having me sit on a carpet to eat. 

We have one investigator named Chin Kuun Tuan who wants to be baptized so bad. We have taught him all the lessons except one, and he lives super far away, so we decided, "You know what?! We're goin to you!" to finish teaching him so he can get baptized. We drove out in the senior couples car (which was my first time in a car in 4 months) and met him an hour away! He lives on a mango farm, and I am 100% positive that where he lives, they have never seen LDS missionaries before. So they were really shocked to see white people who knew Cambodian. The best was during our lesson with Chin Kuun Tuan, we all took off our shoes, and the Senior Elder had Birkenstock socks. I could hardly focus after I saw those. So cool!!! 

On Sunday, we were going to meet a less active member with a member, but it turned out the member brought all of her friends, so it was Elder Elieson and I riding around town with like 4 or 5 mopeds full of homies following right behind. Seriously, we were the crew. I couldn't get a picture of it. But it was so awesome. I wanted a leather jacket. 

To wrap up, I would like share with you all the type of people who live here. We have a book of all the members or investigators here, and these are the best records I found: A family who got baptized, but they can't come to church because it was "rice season" (it is always rice season here), and they have to "watch their fish". One lady got baptized here, but she can't come to church because on the weekends she leaves to take her husband food. He is living in their second house to guard it. So he guards one house (from who, I knoweth not), and she lives in the other house, but brings him food on the weekends. I guess he just eats during the week. There is also a returned missionary who got excommunicated because he came back from his mission and decided to become a monk. Apparently the leaders of the church here love excommunicating people.There is also a member here who doesn't come to church much named "Dallin". The record said "She will come to church if you give her the duty" LOL  

My week was full of adventure, and I would like to wrap up by giving a shout out to good ole Cody Dunford because I miss that In-N-Out eating machine. See ya all next time, FOOLZ! 

​I recruited these little cuties to help me invite people to English Class

 ​If you are wondering which one is me, just look for the diamond in the rough 

HE IS SUCH A MODEL!!!! Why don't you zoom in and get a good look at his jaw line?