Dang Corona

Another week down and they just keep going faster. This week was a lot of hard work; lots of learning and studying and working. We focus a lot on memorizing phrases and words now and it is hard but the more you practice the better you get. In class we get to teach our teachers as if they were investigators and it is such an amazing experience. Even though I know it's my teacher, it always feels so real. I feel like they are learning and growing. It really helps me see how much I am improving. Each lesson I can say more and testify better. I am growing and improving each day. 

This week we had the opportunity to hear from Jeffrey R. Holland. It was an amazing experience. I got to sing in the choir and we sang Hope of Israel. It was very very powerful. If there is any way you can find this devotional online do it for the following reasons: 

1. You will hear an amazing talk about missionary work

2. You will hear an amazing choir and bonus,

3. I was on screen a lot while singing so you can see me. That's all. 

Also this week we learned that the Corona Virus has spread to Thailand. We don't know for sure what is happening but all of the missionaries serving there now can not leave their apartments. All people are locked inside and they may shut down the mission for a little. We heard we will be probably reassigned at least temporarily but we don’t know where to. I know whatever happens it’s part of God's plan. He knows what is best and knows how we can be better. I am excited to see what the future holds. I'm not too sure at this point. I was sad at first because I was excited for Thailand but I see it as a second mission. Whatever it is it’ll be a good adventure. 

We see lots of new missionaries come in to the MTC and leave while we’re still here slaving away. It is sad and makes us excited to get out of here. We have 3 more weeks and a lot more to learn. Let's hope we learn enough and are ready to serve. Again, no clue where I will be or what language I'll be speaking, but i'm ready for whatever is coming. Bring it on. 

That's all. Love you all and I will let you know if any news comes out about my future. Exciting! Love you bye bye. 

ฐานะปุโรหิต

Priesthood  

โจเซฟ สมิธ

Joseph Smith

Alma 7:11-13 Read. Ponder. Love.

Elder Slavens

Elder Slay

Trentbabe

Room did not smell the best. Now it smells like Angels.

The mashed potatoes here are just a ball. Do not recommend!

TRC party. We love learning and teaching Thai. That's for sure. 

1 month down 23 to go

This week went by mega fast. Weeks go by faster and faster and I learn more and more. I actually can somewhat speak now and can understand a lot more than I used to be able to, unfortunately just not in Thai, lol. I have officially been in the MTC for a month now. That went by very very fast. I really can’t believe it. It feels like I've been here for 6 hours, but no, Elder Slavens it’s been 4 weeks. Nice try. 

This week. . . .  let's see what I did.

We decided to set a random goal for each day and let me just say, nearly impossible.

Monday I tried to eat only fruit and water. Failed. 

Tuesday I did 300 push ups. Success.

Wednesday, let me take some time to discuss this day. The goal was to speak Thai and only Thai all day. Everyone else failed but I knew I could do it. Since I know almost no Thai, I just sat around all day quiet. No words. Nothing. So sad. I was so lonely. Life sucks without English. Success? (You decide).

Thursday try to read 12 verses of the Book of Mormon in Thai.  Fail. 

Friday give 30 compliments. Fail (how did I fail that one?)

So all in all not a great track record.

On a positive note, we taught our first Thai TRC this week (lesson with an outside investigator). It actually went so much better than we expected. We taught about Joseph Smith and the first vision. It was such a spiritual experience. It was amazing. We repeated ourselves a lot because we don't have a very extensive vocabulary but I learned so much and I know our investigator did too. We bragged about how good we were afterward. Everyone was pretty jealous. 

Not a ton happened this week. I want a funny story but I’ve got nothing. Usually I am laughing while writing my email but this week was a lot more work and a lot less play. Less construction, less broken elevators, no ladies rooms, but I still have my fort. I sleep like a baby every night. I look forward to getting in bed and having complete darkness. It makes me so happy.

We are learning a lot and are working hard. We have a month left in the MTC and a lot to learn. Let's hope I keep working hard and learn what I need to learn. Again, if anyone has a pill or food that makes you learn a language go ahead and send it. Thanks.

Peace out fans. See you next week. Enjoy life and don’t learn Thai. Its rough. BYE

Elder Slavens

Elder Slay

Fish Boy

โจเซฟ สมิธแปลพระคัมภีร์มอรมอนโดยอำนาจของพระผู้เป็นเจ้า 

Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. 

Happy Valentine's Day from us 2 to you Earth.

Prepping for hosting. Feeling fly, not too shy.

All I know is we are good at self timer mode. It's a beautiful thing. Technology.

This week on Keeping Up With the Elder Speaking Thai and Struggling Everyday

Good evening Earth. It's me. Elder Slavens. I speak fluent Thai and I don't remember English at all. English who. Kidding. Got you. Pranked. 

In reality I am working hard and am starting to finally get it. We got to teach our teachers but we haven't taught a real "investigator" yet. It's usually just members who say they aren't members and try to trick us. It won’t work on me. We are teaching someone next week so be ready for a good story. I can read Thai now very very slowly and am learning words and phrases. Tones are hard but the more I practice the better I get. I have been able to understand my teachers a lot better when they talk and pray and everything, but when they say, "Hey Elder Slavens, speak." I'm like, uhhh impossible. We were working on a book we called the Basic Core. This book had all of the basic phrases we would use that we needed to memorize. We just finished and we are now working on Intermediate Core. This calls for a lot more memorization and work. I need to memorize 4-5 phrases and 10 words for each topic in preach my gospel lessons. It is hard but since we have 6 hours of class a day, 1 hour of language study, then we speak all the Thai we know all day. It helps. 

This week I broke an elevator, thought I had tinnitus (when you can't hear out of an ear and you just hear ringing), I watched construction more than I studied, and made a fort. All true. 

Elevator- we had about 10 people in an elevator including people we didn't know when I forced the doors shut. Right as they closed the elevator dropped and stopped. Everyone soon realized the elevator broke. We then hear. "I am sorry, but we are experiencing technical difficulties." I sat down on the floor and said, “Aww bummer.” The people we didn't know soon started to punch the buttons and we then finally started moving. I laughed so hard when I realized I almost just killed us all. Sorry everyone. My bad. 

Ear- I woke up on Tuesday and I couldn't hear out of my right ear, I thought, “Well, that stinks.” I heard a ringing and came to the conclusion I would never hear again. I asked people and they were no help. The next morning I could hear so not sure what was up but I am happy to say my hearing is perfect. 

Construction- The MTC has been under crazy construction right by the building where we have class, studies, and everything. We study by the window and every time I look out they are doing some sort of construction. It is so distracting. I cheer every time. I love my study time, but I love construction more. 

Fort- I had a great idea to take 7 blankets and tuck them under the top bunk so I would have a nice fort. Best idea I've ever had. So dark, so cozy.  

I am really excited to get to Thailand but I still have 6 weeks until I get to leave. I am excited because there are 2 new Thai districts coming at the end of February. We will be able to teach them and help them. But in reality they may be helping me. Let's just hope someone creates a food you can eat that helps you learn a new language. Boy that would be nice. 

Here are some songs you may enjoy. I don't understand them but they make me feel like I'm meditating on a river. I hope you feel how I feel while listening to this music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV7t81aKlz4 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIpq33YHX4M

I have heard many of you enjoy my emails. I don't know what I am doing right but you are welcome. If anyone has suggestions on what I should talk about, just shoot me an email. 

I'm out of here. Peace out to all of you. I hope you have a great week, I love you all, miss you all, and I hope you don't break an elevator or get distracted by construction this week. I know how it feels. You'll be hearing from me in 7 days. Enjoy your time Elder Slavens free. BYE. 

Elder Slavens

เอ็ลเดอร์ สะเลเว็นส์   

#trentakesthailand

พระกิตติคุณของพระเยซูคริสต์เพิ่มความแข็งแกร่งให้ ครอบครัว  

The Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families.

Read all of JSH and prepare for general conference

I am going to send a video of me speaking. If you make fun of me I will be sad. I hope you can all understand from this video that I am struggling but am slowly learning. Maybe one day I will look back and go wow I was pretty good. One day. 

 I told you I like construction. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Watch and you will be happy. 

Me and the men's room. My favorite room in the whole MTC. 

In other news my bestie boy Elder Isaac Hansen dropped into the MTC on Wednesday. 

I barely see him because the MTC is always go go go. Still love him.

We all pointed to our locations of serving. As you can see it's pretty concentrated in the little area we like to call 

South East Asia

Dream Job: Being Flat Stanley

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. 

                        Me and Joseph Smith hanging out having a good time

                       Long live fish eye

I Miss Spongebob

Another week, another nickel. Today marks 10 days in the MTC. Thai is still hard and Utah is still cold. I meet new people every day since there are about 2,000 people here and I love it. I am tired every day and almost fall asleep in every class. Here is my daily schedule for the next 9 weeks.

Wake up at 6:30

Shower

Exercise Time

Breakfast

Personal Study

Companionship Study

Lunch

Language Study

Class for 3 Hours

Dinner

Book of Mormon Study

More class for another 3 hours

Mega journaling

Bed by 10:30

The schedule is very packed and very busy. I never have free time and am always moving. That is pretty much the only way I stay awake. If you haven't realized, I like sleeping. It's non-stop and I actually love it. I am learning so much and am getting so much work done every day. I am learning a new language and am learning more about myself. AWWWW CUTE. 

Back to Thai. This language is hard. Let me tell you a little about it. There are 44 consonants that are all scribbles, there are 55 vowels and vowel clusters. Those can be basically anywhere around the consonants. You read words by the syllables so there are many syllables in one word you have to understand. With that you have tone. Tones are the absolute worst. Every consonant has a class and when the consonant is at the beginning of a sentence it changes the tone. THEN there are rules. If there are certain letters and scribbles at the end of the word it again changes the tone. Sorry if you are confused, but so am I. It's tough. We had 4 elders trying to read 1 Nephi 1:1 and it took us an hour and it was most likely all wrong. I guess we will get it one day. That's what everyone says. 

Back to English. We were able to teach an investigator about the plan of salvation and it was amazing. We had 3 lessons with her and on our second lesson she was so confused and it was awful. We then figured it out and taught such an amazing lesson. SHE PRAYED I MEAN C'MON SHE PRAYED AT THE END.

I love it here at the MTC so much. Anyone getting ready to come and serve, you are going to LOVE it. It is hard but it is also so worth it. I love every second and am so happy to be here. 

Ok bye everyone. I love you all and if you have any good Spongebob quotes feel free to email them to me. Thank you. BYE BYE. 

ผ่านการชดใช้ของพระผู้ช่วยให้รอด เราสามารถมีชีวิตนิลัน 

Through the Savior's Atonement, we can receive eternal life. 

Moroni 7:48 Read and enjoy

-Elder Slavens

Elder Slay

Elder Silawen

Learning Thai looking oh so mighty fine

We all know Thai so well. I promise

Me praying to actually start learning

The district I live in. I love them that's for sure. 

Sleeping with 2 sheets. That's the MTC alright

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Elder Slavens here. I am happy to say I am alive. I've been alive this whole week and am feeling great. I don't think I have ever been this tired before but that's ok I'm enjoying my time in the MTC. This whole experience being here is not what I expected. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't this. We have been working non stop and it's tiring. I suggest to never wake up at 6:30. It just isn't the best idea. When you wake up that early and you live here, days feel like weeks. I've been in the Provo MTC for 3 days now but oh boy it does not feel that way. Being here is truly amazing and I've grown so much already.

My week went something like this.

Wednesday- Land in Utah at 8 AM, spend my last moments as a free man with my siblings then I entered the MTC at 1. My fall roommate Elder Salem Davis showed me around campus which was very cute of him then I met my companion Elder Wright. He went to BYU summer and fall with me but we didn't talk much but we sure do now. We can't really leave each others side so we are forced to talk but really I love him and we are such good friends. We then went to class and began to learn Thai. This language is just a little hard. I'll figure it out hopefully. That night we slept with 2 sheets and woke up many times and we thought that's how it was gonna be every night but turns out they do have blankets you just had to find them.

Then basically every other day after that consisted of waking up too early to function, had some breakfast then we played Walliban (Volleyball in Thai) and some nice 4 square; great game. After that we would usually have lots of study time for language, Book of Mormon, and companionship study. Later in the day we have class for 3 hours then dinner then 3 more hours of sweet old Thai. I've been learning a lot but it is quite difficult to understand a language you don't know. I'm getting there slowly. The days feel long but are really amazing and I already love it here. I have felt the spirit so strong every day and know what I am doing is the right thing. I love this opportunity I have to learn Thai and to serve a mission for our Lord and Savior. Love you and miss you all. You'll be hearing from me next week. Bye bye.

Moroni 10:5 

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

และโดยอำนาจของพระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์ท่านจะรู้ความจริงของทุกเรื่อง.

Enjoy the blurry Samsung images.

My enjoying my snack I took for later because they like to starve you here. 

Double whammy companionship study. Thai is fun and all but blurry pictures are the funnest.

Seeing double? I do think so. Who am I you may ask. Just a boy with a picture of himself in his wallet at all times.

Me and my bud Elder Greene. We love to gossip and enjoy the times when we see each other during lunch. 

First week in country!

Hey everybody!

Well I made it to Cambodia safe and sound from the MTC! I'm gonna have such a great 2 years here! I'm so excited to get out there and serve!

I'm trying to wrap my head around the people and the culture and the language and everything, but here are some things that happened this first week of my mission:

1.) An old dude told us so casually that he can't go to church because he is coughing up worms.

2.) Someone bore his testimony for half an hour and said, "don't angry bird". Whatever that means.

3.) Someone else told me that when i go home from Cambodia that I need to, "tell America that           Cambodia is messed up." Silly! I still have 2 years to go!

4.) Last night I had a dream that I was going home, and I couldn't sleep afterwards! So scary! And then I just started laughing hysterically thinking about how one day I can say that I spent 2 years in Cambodia. How random is that!

Well, one day when I finish my mission it will be great to say that I did it. I achieved the impossible. That I've learned a lot.  But that day is so far away.

Until then, see you next week :)

Love, Elder Slavens