Johnny Slavens, Missionary Companion

When I first met Aaron he was on top of the world.  In our minds, as missionaries, he was world famous. A 6’7” left handed picture for the Minnesota Twins.   We knew he was drafted out of high school as one of the highest draft picks in the history of the state of Utah. We heard about his great sacrifice to serve a mission in General Conference and from other church leaders.  We were all convinced he would be the next Steve Young, Danny Ainge or Dale Murphy. Even more astonishing is what a great missionary he was.  In fact, as his companion for 9 months I can testify that he was a Perfect Missionary.   He was perfect in obedience, hard work and ability.   His sincere love for others and his complete confidence in the truthfulness of the gospel provided an incredible ability to do the work of the Lord. 

He is extremely Christ-like and full of charity.  He would always be concerned with my wants and desires before he would ever communicate his own needs.  He was like that with everyone. He did that with everything and he did it every time.  To demonstrate this point, though there are countless examples, he came to me while retiring to bed the night before one of our P-Days and asked to talk briefly.   He asked, “What would you like to do tomorrow for P-Day?”  He always did that before P-Day so it was no surprise.  After hearing my ideas of what I thought we should do, he sincerely agreed to all of the things I thought I needed to do on that P-Day.  He earnestly said that he really wanted to make sure we had time to do those things.  But then after hearing and agreeing to all of that he said, “I have something I would like to do tomorrow if we have time.”  He then took off his shoe and sock and showed me his big toe.  He had an ingrown toenail that was out of control.  His entire foot looked like it was going to fall off.  He was more concerned with my little pointless things to do on our P-Days that he had put the care of his foot on the back burner.   I learned a big lesson that day.  I want to be like the Savior but first I need to be more like Aaron.  That experience changed my direction.  Whenever we had to put our names together on a document, which for whatever reason was often, he would always put my name first. 

We finished our missions close to the same time.  We were both eager to conquer the world but we also both knew that Aaron was actually going to.  I remember being really sad going home.  I had grown to love this gentleman but he was going to go on to be world famous and because of that I would perhaps never see him again. His first twenty years of life he was on top of the world.  The king of kings and still completely obedient and faithful to the Lord. 

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil….His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.”
“And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.  And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.”

After completing our missions I was pleasantly surprised at Aaron’s efforts to stay in touch despite his busy schedule.   I will always be extremely thankful for that as he has had such a great impact on my life.  I am a better person because of Aaron.  Staying close has also given me an opportunity to witness and testify of the enormous hardships he has faced over the 2^nd 20 years of his life.   I do not believe the unique difference between his first 20 years and his second 20 years is a coincidence. Returning home from his mission he desperately wanted to get married and start his family.  However, he struggled through the dating process for 6 long years.  I know it sounds funny but I really felt like not being able to find Lorraine was a hard struggle for Aaron.  When you are only twenty years old 6 years is roughly 25% of your life.   During that time he also had major problems with his throwing arm and went through several surgeries and therapy.  Because of the arm, he was not able to accomplish any of his baseball goals and dreams.  In fact, he never played one game in the MLB.  I know that was extremely difficult for him. He never once complained to me about any of that but when you love someone you know.

Finding and marrying Lorraine was a highlight of his life.  Each child that came was a great spurt of happiness to him.  Nevertheless, the first two children (lovely Kaitlyn and beautiful Matti) along with the fourth (Tough Brigham) of six children were born with some sever health struggles.  It was extremely difficult for him to watch on a daily basis three little people he loved so much struggle with the difficulties that came with that.

“And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

Like everyone else I was shocked to hear the story continue that Aaron only 40 years old now has lung cancer which has moved through his body into his hips, spine, brain, etc.   For me it is like a dream and doesn’t seem like that can be real.

“And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.”

Aaron’s life over the past 20 years and the way he has handled it, is a testimony to me that he is even greater than the man we all knew he was.  He is a modern day Job without question.  Like Job he is a “just man made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood.”  After this perhaps final test he will no doubt be fully worthy of the 2^nd comforter (D&C 88:3-4) and ready to be “arrayed in white robes…having came out of great tribulation, and having washed his robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”, crowned with glory and exaltation (Revelations 7:13-14/2:10). 

 During the 9 months we were together I had experiences with Aaron of which I am forever sworn to secrecy.  Perhaps only he and I will know those details but some hints so that they last forever in our memories would include: Triple M, Sister Months and Irma Rosa.

We were both competitive and would find things to compete about while we did the work.  We mostly found time for ping pong and soccer.  Since he always beat me in Ping Pong I more fully enjoyed Soccer since we would be on the same team.  He and I against the little kids in the street.  Those were great times. We often got more competitive than we should have as missionaries but it was in our nature.  One time he was going 100 miles an hour with the soccer ball weaving in and out of these little kids and he put his enormous foot on this little ball and the ball took him head over heels flying through the air in his shirt and tie.  It was like the Giant from Jack’s bean stock had fallen from the sky.  All the little kids, myself and everyone around us stopped and watched in complete silence.  When Aaron, even though he was scraped up and in pain, starting laughing everyone burst into laughter.   Looking back in my mind seeing him flying through the air was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen and pretty dang funny.

On another occasion, on our way back to our apartment at the end of a long day we got involved in a little game of soccer with some kids in the street.  They were good but Aaron was better and I did my best to stay out of the way.  Despite their best efforts we beat them but it took a lot of sweat to do it.  After the game walking back to our apartment we were dripping in sweat when our mission president pulled up beside us.   He had been waiting at our apartment to talk to us. He noticed the sweat and said, “Goodness. You guys sure are working hard on the missionary work!”  We remained silent and just smiled!  Haha.

Another time we were in a major crunch.  We had too many missionary discussions scheduled that there was no way we could do them all.  So we knew we had to split up.  We couldn’t find any members that would do splits with us.  We finally found one gentlemen but we needed two.  We decided to pray.  After an earnest prayer we noticed a gentleman a little way off.  We recognized him.  He was always completely drunk and homeless in the streets.  He mentioned to us on a couple of occasions that he was a member.  So we went up to him and asked him if he was a member?  He said he was.  We asked him if he had the priesthood.  He said he did?  Aaron and I decided who are we to judge?!  So we told him he could go with us as long as he didn’t say anything which we figured was good idea since he wasn’t sober.   He pretty much kept to his word and didn’t talk much but then while walking back to meet Aaron our mission president pulled up in his car to talk to me on the street.  As soon as I saw our mission president I told our new found friend this would be a really good time not to speak.  I talked to our mission president for about five minutes and luckily my new friend didn’t say a word.  After that experience, Aaron and I figured we had better not use him for splits anymore until he sobered up.

Aaron and I were so completely devoted to working hard and making it happen that we often made rookie mistakes in our decisions like the one mentioned above.  We were both results driven and committed to removing any obstacles that distracted us from the work.  Another one of those occasions is another time we had scheduled too many discussions that we simply couldn’t do them all.  We did that often and almost always the Lord would provide and members would come and we would split and all would work out.  This time, however, it was not working out.  We couldn’t find anyone and time was of the essence.  We prayed earnestly.  At that time we came upon a lady from the ward and her two 9 year old twin boys.   Aaron and I looked at each other and jointly decided, “Well, the Lord has provided!”  After we both had a 9 year old companion for longer than we should have, we both decided that 9 is too young!

When I learned Aaron was color blind I was thrilled with the possibilities. What better way to serve your companion than to play tricks on him – haha.  He had one pair of red shoes and one pair of black shoes which most of us did as that is what was recommended in our missionary packet.  You can probably guess what is going to happen now that I know he is color blind?!  It seems like for several days he walked around with one red shoe one black shoe!  Haha. Then he caught on.  He was smart.  He marked the shoes so he could tell which one went with which. 

While attending BYU Aaron would be there sometimes in between his baseball schedule.  I always knew when he was there as I would see cool little notes on my truck window.  Back then we didn’t have cell phones or email so the way we communicated was by leaving notes for each other on our parked cars.  He always left the funniest notes that made me laugh the rest of the day.  It was a great honor for me that someone so important would take time to leave a note for someone as unimportant as me.  What a hero. 

During that time, he and I took a trip to Blanding, Utah – my home town.  I introduced him to my family, the mountains that I love and friends throughout the town.  We don’t get celebrities in Blanding too often so it was a great treat for me!  Again that he would take an entire weekend out of his busy schedule to do that for me was a great blessing.

During our missions he gave me one of his ties.  I still have that tie hanging in my closet as a prized possession. He also gave me one of his signed baseball cards that I have in a small box with my other little prized possessions. 

Aaron and I were responsible to welcome in the new missionaries as they arrived.   We would bring them all into our office and act extremely serious and then ask them, “What is the purpose of missionary work?”  There is a common thing that all the missionaries quote when asked that question.  We were prepared for that and as soon as they would say that we would, acting completely serious, yell and pound our fists on the table and say, “NOOO!  IT IS TO BAPTIZE!!! BAPTIZE!!! BAPTIZE!!”  After a few minutes of silence and dark stairs from the new missionaries we would start laughing.  That always broke the ice and went over well with the new folks.  Haha. 

When leaving the mission Aaron promised me that when he became rich and famous he would hire me to clean his house, wash his cars, take care of his yard, etc. I will hold him to that promise. 

Sometimes when we were knocking doors I would start the conversation by asking the person that answered the door who was better looking me or Aaron?  The thing you have to love about Brazilians is they are always perfectly honest regardless of how it makes any one feel.  Without hesitation they would all say, “Well of course this tall handsome blond man is much better looking!  He is tall, handsome and strong!”

That eventually began to weigh on my self-esteem so I tried a new approach.  I would knock on the door and tell the person at the door all about myself (i.e. missionary from the US, all about my family, etc., we even had pictures to show since Brazilians love pictures) and then I would introduce my companion by saying, “This is Elder Thatcher.  He is tall.”

One time we were teaching a first discussion.  We were both extremely tired and it was the last discussion of the day.  We had worked hard all day and were ready to get this last one taught and return home for the night.  The family we sat down to teach wouldn’t let us get a word in edge wise.  They only wanted to scream hallelujahs and Amens after every word we said. There was no Spirit.  We both looked at each other and by the look we both knew that each other was just too tired to go through this.  So I quickly asked, “Can we offer you a pray before we leave?”  With several Amens and a hallelujah they agreed.   So I started to pray hoping that after the prayer we could call it a night and go home.  As I started to pray the family starting yelling some Amens and Hallelujahs throughout my prayer.   But then all of a sudden Aaron starting yelling right along with them.  Hearing him yell Hallelujah and Amen throughout my prayer was perhaps one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed.  I cried and sobbed through that entire pray and for the rest of the night.  Not because I was feeling the Spirit but because I was trying as hard as I could not to laugh and so all I could do was cry from laughter inside.   It was just too much.

One time we were teaching a gentleman.  We asked him if he had read and prayed like we asked him to last time we were together.  He said he had.  Aaron and I looked at each other and knew he hadn’t.  So Aaron asked him, “So did you like that part where Nephi slays the dragon?”  The gentlemen said oh yes that was my favorite part.  For some reason the way Aaron did that and it was so out of character for him to do something like that I just laughed and laughed about that for 9 months. 

Walking down the street we would play all sorts of games with each other to help pass the time.  One game we would play is when the other person wasn’t paying attention we would push him into a tree or wall or something. He was so much bigger than me so he was always really getting me.  Finally I was determined to get him so when he least expected it I shoved him with everything I had.  He really wasn’t ready so he flew really hard into a nearby tree.  I felt so bad after that we quit the game – haha!

The funniest thing with Aaron maybe is the planner he carried around with him while on the mission.  He took that thing everywhere he went.  Well the thing is he would periodically drop it during the day.  Half the time when he would drop it, he would go to catch it and in the process of trying to catch it, he would kick it.   After a couple of times watching that, I would pay attention and immediately when he began to drop his planner I would yell, “Kick it!! Kick it!!”  We would both laugh so hard we would cry!

My mother sent me a bunch of Hershey kisses in the mail. Aaron had this stuff that was kind of like oatmeal but much better.  He would make us oatmeal and then we would put the Hershey kisses in the oatmeal.  Man that was so good.  We would sit there and eat that without saying a word to each other.  We both loved that. We would savor every bite. 

Sometimes the mission president would send us a third companion.  We had so much fun with those companions.  Stories that both he and I know that we just can’t talk about except for in private.  But good times especially with Elder Nunez.  We love that guy!  One guy we got had just joined the church and then was on a mission.  We decided to let him do one of the baptismal invitations.  He was raw so it made us a little worried.  After being completely nervous, he finally said something like the equivalent in English of something like, “Dude, would you totally do us a solid and follow the example of Jesus who is awesome and be baptized?”  We both heard that and closed our eyes realizing what a major mistake that was to let him do the baptismal invitation when the family said “Yes!”.  Hahaha.   We learned that day the Spirit can confirm even the most slang tongue. 

I love Aaron.  There are so many stories we experienced together I could write on and on.  Perhaps I should….

May God forever bless Aaron (and his family) and that we can all continue to learn from his example. 

Johnny