Week 50: I become Zacharius Blankenbiller

 早晨大家！


I lost my voice on Saturday and spent almost all of Sunday being a mute. I cannot fathom how Zacharius in the New Testament handled being mute. It was literally the worst thing ever, turns out I have a really hard time not talking. This has been instructive for me and has made me realize that despite the jokes I am indeed a D1 yapper.

Highlights
- Interviews with President and Sister Hill! I had a really good interview with them and they had some great advice for how to be a better and more effective Zone Leader and missionary. 
- We had two ministering calls with companionships that have been having a hard time and they were so Spirit led and Spirit filled, we felt very blessed to be able to help them as much as we did! Elder Smith and I talked about how much we felt we were led by the Spirit
- I went on exchanges with Elder Cheng and we had a blast. Went finding down in Aberdeen for a bit, then decided that we weren't having any success, so we hopped on the MTR and found on the MTR for two hours and talked to this German lady for a while. By the end of the two hours we were in Fanling, my baby area haha. If you aren't familiar with Hong Kong geography, Aberdeen is the farthest south part of Hong Kong and Fanling is like as far north as you can go without going into Mainland. It was so fun, and awesome to go back up to my old area, I miss it a ton it's the best. 
- Then on Saturday I had AP exchanges where I went on exchanges with... Elder Chuy again haha. This is the second time we've gotten to do exchanges since he trained me. It was so fun, we had a blast and I learned a ton. We talked a lot about how to help the missionaries in the mission and what's most important to focus on. We also talked about how mission life prepares us for post mission life and how to prepare better
- During my exchange with Elder Chuy we were on the MTR home and started talking to this guy Tommy, and in the conversation he ended up confiding in us that he's not very happy in his life. We ended up talking to him for close to an hour and talked about everything from the Plan of Salvation to the Restoration to how to know if God is real or not. He was so receptive and so ready to hear it, it was such a privelage to be part of that miracle

Spiritual Thought
Recently I've been struggling with feeling bored when reading the Book of Mormon. I knew that was dumb because obviously the Book of Mormon is more than just a book, but that was how I'd been feeling. So I was trying to find new ways to apply the Book of Mormon. Elder Cheng on exchanges told me that one transfer he spent the entire transfer just studying Mosiah 1-5, and just went so deep. So I decided to try that. And I spent 45 minutes of a personal study on just 1 Nephi 1:1. And there was SO MUCH more there than I ever thought there was, when you really dig into it there are so many insights. My testimony of the Book of Mormon was so strengthened, and my excitement to read has come back. I testify that the Book of Mormon has power. It's not only a book, it's the word of God, instruction and insight given specifically for our day. If we do our due diligence to study it and make it meaningful, it will change our lives!

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller

Google Photos

Pictures
1. Exchanges and Tommy
2. Elder Chuy still sleeps during language study
3. Elder Esplin giving Elder West a haircut
4. Filipino dish that we call Bicol Express, we have no idea what it's actually called though
5. Elder Cheng and I on exchanges






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