Week 12: We made bad financial decisions

Hellooooooo everyone, 

This week has been hands down the fastest week so far on my mission, it BLEW by like crazy! We had a ton of lessons, I went on exchanges with the APs, and my companion ran out of money.

Highlights:
- On Wednesday, we had four lessons that were all back to back, so we were teaching for almost 3 hours straight, and then had lunch with one of the friends we taught, and then had all of our studies, and then a meeting with a member family, and then contacting for half an hour. So for about 6-7 hours, we had no breaks, and it was all go-go-go. It was crazy and exhausting, but also super awesome cause we got a lot done!
- On Sunday, most of our friends couldn't come to church with us, all for valid reasons, but it was still sad cause we thought we weren't gonna have anyone with us, but then we ended up having one friend pull through! His name is Man-Tik, we met him last week, and he already came to church with us! And at church, he had his own Bible that he was looking through every time a speaker mentioned a scripture, but obviously he couldn't find scriptures from the Book of Mormon. So after Sacrament meeting I was like, "Hey, if you couldn't find some of those scriptures... It's probably cause they were in here," and then gave him a Book of Mormon which he said he'll start reading soon!
- My companion ran out of mission funds for eating out cause he spent $600 HKD (Hong Kong Dollars) on protein powder 😂 So we had to eat in for a couple days in a row.
- Aaaannndddd the bad financial decisions continued cause today for p-day we went to this all-you-can-eat-buffet that was $288 HKD (about $35 USD!!!) It was sooooo good and they let you stay for 2 1/2 hours!! I definitely ate waayyyy too much food. It's okay though I won't need to eat for a few days now, so my money should be fine haha.

Spiritual Thought:
I've thought a lot about humility this week because we have one friend who has been hard to teach because he doesn't want to believe in a Savior because he doesn't want to need to rely on someone else; he wants to do everything himself. This reminded me of the scripture Ether 12:27, which says:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."
I like this a lot because it reminds us that if we choose to follow Jesus Christ instead of doing it on our own, He will strengthen us and make up for our weaknesses. If we choose to do it on our own we miss out on so many blessings and so much divine help. All we have to do to access that help is to humbly ask for it. 

Hope you're all doing awesome, love you all! 
Elder Blankenbiller


Pictures:
1. P-Day today in East Kowloon: Bruce Lee statue
2. My comp and a kid in our ward
3. Temple trip on Friday night
4. Also temple trip, this is the group of youth in our ward who came to support Andrew! 
5. Member meal last night, it was so fire






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