Elder Zach Blankenbiller

  大家好！ Alright before I get ripped apart for the title of my email, hear me out: at our mission Christmas party we got to watch a movie and we watched It's a Wonderful Life... Except that because of timing we had to cut it short so all I got to watch was up until the point where he almost decides to kill himself. So basically I watched an hour and a half of this man's life falling apart and slowly making him go crazy... And then got no closure. 0/10 and I will definitely finish the whole movie next time Highlights: - On Tuesday we got to help one of the Sister's friends move their fridge and washing machine between apartments and avoid stepping on the pet turtles that were wandering around the apartment - For Christmas Eve we tried to heart attack three ward member's apartments to give them a lil extra Christmas cheer. The first building's security didn't let us up though cause we're missionaries, so we headed to the next one. Which required us to hike up SO...

  大家好！ This has been such an insane week. I started it off being in a trio for the first time on my mission, and then moved to Hong Kong Island which is like the main downtown area, completely different from Sheung Shui where I was just serving. I'm not gonna lie I have my work cut out for me here. I'm follow up training, but my trainee is actually fire, he's super willing to work hard but also has a little bit of trouble being obedient to some of the standards. So we're working on that. Also the Ward relations aren't as great as they could be, and our missionary app is full of so many people and Elder Yip (my trainee) has no idea who a lot of them are. So this transfer is gonna be a lot of repair work and cleanup. But I've already seen the hand of the Lord so much and felt His support a lot of the past few days. We're off to a great start! Highlights: - On the first day that I was in a trio with Elder Adcox and Elder Roberts the elevator doors closed with t...

  大家好! Well we found out transfer news on Saturday night and... I'm leaving my baby area! So crazy, I'm heading all the way down to Hong Kong Island! I've been kinda out in the boonies here in Sheung Shui, but now I'm heading to THE downtown spot which is crazy. In even crazier news I'm going to be training there, so we'll see how that goes haha. I'm a little nervous but also really excited for the new opportunity! Highlights: - On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Roberts again and all the old Chinese men in his ward taught me more ping pong at their ward ping pong activity. Everyone better watch out when I get home cause I'm learning from the best of the best: old retired Chinese men - We had interviews with President on Wednesday, which were so fire! I love having interviews. We had some really good discussions, and he asked me a question on a topic I'd been thinking about a lot recently, but hadn't mentioned to anyone. It was so cool and...

  大家好！ This week was so amazing, we had zone conference and I had my first two baptisms on the mission in the same day yesterday!! Such a spiritual week and experience. Both Charles and Jack had asked me to Baptize them, and it was honestly one of the best moments ever. The entire morning I felt so happy and elated and afterwards I was so excited for them. Genuinely one of the best feelings, having so much joy for the choice they made to bring the most joy in their own lives. So excited to continue doing this work and finding more prepared people! Highlights: - Yesterday our mission had 12 baptisms in one day, which is insane because for the first couple months of the year they were having around 4 per month. We are now only 33 baptisms away from our mission's baptismal goal of 185 people! We've had so many miracles happen recently, and it's been awesome to see. - Zone conference was amazing, we had Elder Buckner from the Asia mission area presidency come and speak, and he ...

  你哋好！ This week we got our WhatsApp banned 4 more times... We're fairly certain that we inherited some sort of curse, so we've been trying to figure out how to uncurse ourselves. No success so far unfortunately. But despite that totally crippling us, we've still been able to get a lot done this week!  Highlights: - Both Jack and Charles passed their baptismal interviews this week!! Which means they'll both be getting baptized next Sunday. I'm so excited for them, they've also both asked for me to baptize them, which will be such a special experience! Shout-out to Elder Chen for coming in clutch for us this week and helping us finish Jack's lessons. - I went on exchanges three times this week, once in Tai Po with Elder Roberts, once in Sha Tin/Tai Wai with Elder Rooks, and a half day in Tai Po with Elder Chen. They were all super fun, and I was able to have a lot of really good conversations!  - We had a crazy miracle happen this week: we did a district find...