Week 42: Listening to fire alarms is optional

 大家好！


We went to the richest neighborhood I've ever been in this week because we felt prompted to go there. And you know what it was divinely inspired cause we got two contacts, handed out a Book of Mormon and shared with like 15 Filipina helpers. It was seriously the weirdest finding I've done in Hong Kong though cause they were all like estates that we stood outside the gates of and talked through a speaker. 

Highlights:
- We got to go back to the Food Angels service place on Tuesday which was so fun! We absolutely grinded and broke the zone record by packaging 10,000 boxes of food for low-income people. It was super fun but so hot in there and also the fire alarm went off like halfway through and was ringing for like 10 minutes but no one did anything and we just follow orders so we kept our heads down and kept packaging
- I went on exchanges with the brand new Elder in my district, Elder West, and we had a blast. We hiked up a mountain to this place called the Mid-Levels. It's literally on the side of a mountain. But it was so fun, we talked to so many awesome people and had some fire conversations. He has had some struggles with adjusting to missionary work and feeling like he doesn't want to be there. We had an amazing discussion and I was able to share a lot to help him because I felt the same way when I first got to the mission. It was really cool to be able to share about my struggles and how I overcame them, and use those experiences to help someone else!
- We're doing a Book of Mormon challenge in our Ward right now and we had to go pick up the Book of Mormons from the mission office but we forgot to bring a cart so we had to carry two boxes of Book of Mormons all the way to the MTR, on the MTR down to our area, and then back to the chapel. Our forearms were dying after that, but so worth it.

Spiritual Thought
Something I've been studying a lot this week is the concept of moving forward and not looking back. I love the BYU Devotional by Elder Holland, "Remember Lot's Wife." He talks about how Lot's wife was turned to a pillar of salt not for just the act of looking back, but for looking back with longing for what she had before, not trusting that the Lord could give her better things than she had ever had before. Elder Holland talks about how we can't get hung up thinking about "the good old days," and wishing we could go back. No matter how good those times were, if we stay by the Lord's side and follow Him, He will continue to lead us into prosperity and joy. My favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 2:20, which says
20 And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands. 
If we follow the Lord, He leads us into the best possible life we can live. He has it prepared for us, all we have to do is trust in Him and keep moving forward.

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller

Google Photos

Pictures
1. Food Angels
2. Last P-Day at the beach (contrary to popular belief, I didn't go in the water even though it was calling my name the whole time)
3. Exchanges with Elder West
4. Elder Leung and I cooked up a fire stir fry
5. Apartment dinner







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