Week 14: Mega Side Quest

大家好！

This week was pretty packed, I had exchanges on Tuesday, my birthday and mission conference on Wednesday, and an epic side quest on Saturday, with a TON of finding time in between.

Highlights:
- On Tuesday when I went on exchanges it was with Elder Smith from my apartment. I don't know if you all remember Thelonius, but he's the guy who I found on my first day in McDonald's while doing language study and then we put on baptismal date. He lives in Elder Smith's area, so we transferred him to them, and I haven't gotten to teach him since then, but on Tuesday it worked out that I got to teach him with Elder Smith!! It was such an awesome opportunity, he was super happy to see me and I was so happy to get to teach him again! Super big miracle
- The elders in  my apartment actually came in so clutch for my brithday, they're the best! I really wasn't expecting too much cause I'm in the mission field, but in the morning Elder Smith and Elder Zhao snuck out and got a cake, and they all got me some presents and everything. It was super fun and so unexpected, so it was so nice! Then later in the day a member in our ward called and asked when we could come pick up the cake she made... Which was even MORE unexpected 😂 But it was so good and so nice!! So absolutely epic birthday! And thank yo so much to everyone who reached out, I really appreciated it, you're all the best! 
- And then the side quest: On Sunday we went out to visit one of the youth in our ward, Jack. He lives out in the middle of nowhere and his parents aren't members, so no one really gets out to visit him super often. He comes to church every week though, which is incredible because he has this condition called Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy. Elder Holland actually gave a talk this last general conference about another kid who has the same condition. Basically up until about two years ago he was a totally normal kid, but his body has now slowly started shutting down on him. His mind is 100% there, but he can't walk anymore, he has a hard time moving his arms, and he has a really hard time speaking. It's so hard, but I've never seen him not being positive and happy, his spirit and faith are so strong. But yeah, so we went to visit him by taking two mini busses to the middle of nowhere, and then walking twenty five minutes through metal shacks and literal jungle to get to his house (his house is actually pretty nice though). It was a crazy side quest where we also at one point heard a wild boar growling and snuffling in the bushes next to us. Super fun. But it was so worth it, Jack is amazing.

Spiritual Thought:
My zone has had a challenge this week to share 40 scriptures on the street every day between the 8 companionships. Every day we get to about 5:00 pm with less than 8 scriptures, but every day we make the goal. We've started calling them "fourth watch miracles" because they come at the last moment, but every time when we put in the effort, we can do it. It's been so cool to see, and I know that applies to everything else in our lives too. Sometimes it seems like it's too late, but if we have faith that God can do all things, then why should we be worried if it takes a little longer? If we have faith, God will always pull through for us and bring the miracles.

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller

Pictures:
1. White curry and chicken
2. It's called cha siu faan, and it's sooo good
3. My Zone, most goated zone ever
4 and 5. My apartment being the best for my birthday!

Also I finally decided to be a sheep and make a Google Photos haha. Here's the link!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2: Me and Elder Gong are Best Buds

Image
Hey everyone! It's been a WILD week starting at Provo MTC, honestly no idea where to start! Okay so I guess first of all this week was seminar week, which is where they train all the new mission presidents, and all the quorum of the twelve and first presidency were here at the MTC! There were also a bunch of area seventies and my district and I ran into Elder Shumway, who gave my favorite talk this last general conference, the talk that I based my farewell talk on. Which was pretty awesome. And then the next day we ended up at the right place at the right time and got to see pretty much all the quorum of the twelve walk out of a building and walk right past us! They all waved at all of us missionaries, and Elder Gong came up and talked to my district for a bit about Hong Kong and speaking Cantonese, it was so crazy!!!  Being at the Provo MTC has been AWESOME so far, I'm loving it! I've run into so many friends from BYU, it's actually nuts. I love getting to see them all...
Read more

Week 3: Jēun Sām!

Image
To explain the title of this week's email, Jēun sām is my district's new motto, in Cantonese means to focus, or lock in. Cause we be LOCKED IN right now. We started Cantonese immersion classes this week and it's actually going way better than I thought it would! I've been able to understand a ton of what my teachers are saying and I've been learning so much.  My companion and I had a really cool experience this week. We had a fake teaching appointment thing where we teach a lesson to someone pretending to be a non-member a 25 minute lesson. They send you a bio with what questions they have so you can prepare a lesson specific for them, so my companion and I spent a bunch of time prepping a lesson on the Plan of Salvation, and then we get into the appointment and he says he wants to know more about prayer. Hmm. So we started rapidly improving an entire new lesson guided completely by the Spirit and ended up teaching a 20 minute lesson!! It was insane, we talked about...
Read more

Week 1: Rubik's Cubes Save Lives

Image
Heyyy, what's up, everyone! Well I had my first week as a missionary! I'm pretty much done with Home MTC, I have like one more class tonight and then I get to go to Provo! I'm really excited cause Zoom is the absolute worst, the only reason I could sit down that long was cause I had a Rubik's Cube I could mess with. I mean Zoom and I have never been good friends, but the beef is real now. The classes were super interesting though and I've learned a ton! My Cantonese classes, however, have been absolutely kicking my butt. Turns out that taking two years of Spanish in high school shockingly does NOT carry over to learning Cantonese, so we've started from scratch. But with many prayers and lots of practicing tones, we're getting there! Prepare to be unable to understand me when I get home.  I also got around to some pretty fun stuff in between all the Zoom classes and devotionals and everything, including a quick ice cream trip to Handel's to try their new ...
Read more