Week 8: Wait, You Mean We Get to Leave?

Hey everyone!

Okay so this week the huge news is that I GOT MY VISA!!! So I'm officially gonna get to go to Hong Kong in like one week, which is actually insane. Hence the title of the email, because we are all shocked that we will be leaving soon since we've kinda been here forever so far.

Highlights:
- We got a new district of Cantonese speaking missionaries that got here on Wednesday, which has been super fun! We've all gotten to go help teach them a bit and hang out with them, it's been awesome. Super weird to remember when we first got here though, feels like forever ago. 
- My roomate Elder Cannon from BYU got here on Wednesday, along with two of my other really good friends from BYU!! It was great to see them all and talk to them for a bit, and my roomate has class on my floor which is sick. 
- On Wednesday when the new missionaries got here we lost a bunch of our teachers cause they went to go teach the new Cantonese missionaries instead, which we were all very sad about cause our teachers are all awesome. But on Saturday we got to combine with the new Cantonese missionaries and our old teachers which was super fun!
- We learned a new Cantonese slang phrase from a friend that literally translates to "baby chickens have no brains," but you say it to people when you want to call them dumb. Epic.
- This morning we played kickball with our Mandarin district friends for two hours, and it was a blast, all my BYU intramural kickball training came back to me and I had some pretty good moves. Shoutout to my old team for the training šŸ™Œ

Spiritual Thought:
On our Friday evening class our teacher Sister Wilson had us go on a mini field trip to the big windows on our floor that overlook Provo down to Utah Lake, and just have us sit for a while and think about the plan of salvation and what it means to us. It was a really powerful experience, remembering that the same person that created all that I could see was the same person that created me and loves me. I want to remind you all that you are all beloved children of God, and that He has created you, loves you, and wants to give you all the help He has, all you have to do is ask. 

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller

Pictures:
1. My new favorite word in Cantonese
2. Us messing with the new district
3. Another awesome Cantonese phrase I found
4. The current state of the MTC cafeteria
Sorry I don't have a ton pictures for this week, you'll have to make due with my Cantonese screenshots haha








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