Week 20: I can now deep doc in Cantonese

 你哋好！


This week was also insane, so much stuff happened and it flew by crazy fast! Went on exchanges twice, put another friend on bap date, had a crazy conversation with a member, and met a 97 year old Chinese man who lived through the cultural revolution.

Highlights:
- Elder Zhao and I went on exchanges on Wednesday! It was super fun, I always love the opportunity cause Elder Zhao and I knew each other at BYU and are at about the same places on our missions, so we talk a lot about the mission.
- It was also lowkey chilly on Tuesday-Thursday, which felt HEAVENLY because of how hot and humid it's been lately
- Zone Conference on Tuesday! Fun to hang out with all the missionaries, and also had some fire trainings. Elder Pillion who was my Zone Leader last transfer gave a farewell testimony and it was so good, I loved it
- More exchanges on Friday-Saturday where I went with a trainee who's in his first transfer of training so I had to lead my area and I was the lead Cantonese speaker. I was a lil nervous going into it, but it ended up being such a good experience! My Cantonese grew a lot from that experience and we were able to meet three new people, and we're meeting with two of them next week! Super big miracle
- We also were able to put Charles on baptismal date on Saturday! it was such a cool experience, he's so prepared and ready for it! Thank you to everyone who prayed for him, bless up 🙏
- One of the young men in our ward named Ethan got an absolutely horrendous haircut and Elder Chuy offered to fix it for him, so yesterday we spent an hour after church having him cut his hair. Then we let Andrew try and do some of it and then Andrew cooked him so Elder Chuy had to spend another half hour fixing what Andrew did. We put this in our schedule as a service project, we'll see what our ZL's say 😂
- Elder Chuy and I also had a super long deep doctrine conversation with a member after church yesterday... In Cantonese!!! It was so crazy, I was able to understand most of the conversation and contribute as well!!! Gift of tongues is awesome

Spiritual Thought:
This week I was watching a really old President Monson conference talk that Elder Zhao recommended to me about "the lost battalion." The message of his talk was about those around us who are lost, who may feel alone or cut off from all the people around them, and what we can do to help them. He shared an expereince from when he was a young man and his young men's quorum sacrificed their Christmas party budget to buy a Christmas dinner for some old widows in the ward. The way that they were able to bless these widows lives with their simple act of kindness really stayed with me, and I thought a lot about how we can pay closer attention to those around us and choose to make the effort to lift others up. The best thing about helping others have more joy is that it blesses you to have even more joy too. 

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller

Google Photos:
Pictures:

1. The haircut
2. Got sniped by the Sisters
3. Lesson on exchanges
4. Exchanges with Elder Zhao
5. Lesson with Charles!






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