Elder Zach Blankenbiller

  大家好！ Adjusting to this new transfer has been nuts, just getting used to the new area, the new zone, the new ward. There's so much happening, which is awesome, but just a lot to process haha. And it's all back in Cantonese, so my brain has been a little cooked haha. But it's been such a fun couple days in Sha Tin, this area is the best!! So fun, so many people willing to talk, great food, the Ward is amazing, and my comp is super fun Highlights - Before I moved areas we were able to get our friend Rai baptized, and it was such an amazing day! The Spirit there was so strong, and Rai was nervous, but also so excited. So glad to be a part of his journey, such a blessing!  - Elder Shields and I got an opportunity to do some service for a guy named Glen who just moved to Hong Kong. He's Christian but not a member of our church. Super nice guy and has the BIGGEST collection of drinking glasses I've ever seen haha. He's like mega rich and the view from his apartment i...

  大家好！ Our Elder's Quorum President, Derrald, has been out of town on trips for the entire summer, so I hadn't seen him in like 4 months. Then out of the blue he shows up at church last week, so we tried to reach out to schedule a meeting to catch up and coordinate, but he continued to ghost us even though he was back in town. Then this Sunday they reorganized the Elders Quorum Presidency, so we understand why he was ghosting us now. Highlights: - Our friend Rai had his baptismal interview on Wednesday and will be getting baptized tomorrow!! When he came to church after his interview our friend Charlie was also there, so they sat together and instantly became best friends. They are seriously the most adorable pair. After church Charlie texted us asking when Rai's baptism would be so he could come. So excited for Rai!! He's come so far and his faith is so strong - We visited our Branch Mission Leader's house for dinner and found out that he lives in a castle - We vis...

  大家好! We had a lesson with our friend Vicky where we went in planning to teach about the Godhead and instead ended up teaching him about baptism! It was so fire, he was super interested in the gift of the Holy Ghost, and when we asked him if he would want that in his life he said "of course, who wouldn't?!" So we invited him to be baptized and he accepted the invitation! We had invited one of the Elder's Quorum Presidency members named Anson to join for the lesson and right after we invited him to be baptized Anson goes "The more you learn about our church the more you will hear some negative things, just remember not to pay attention to them and to ask us your questions." Okay super chill, great thought. Then he goes "For example you will hear that Joseph Smith had lots of wives and you will probably be like "What the heck?" I don't know why he did that but I'm sure he had a reason." Elder Shields just looked at each other and w...

  大家好！ I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday for church, so I prepared a 10 minute or so talk. Turns out they wanted me to use wayyyy more time, they only had two speakers. So after us there was still like 20 minutes left in the meeting, and both Elder Buckner and Elder Woo from the area presidency were there that day, and so our Branch President just had them come up and give messages. It was a lil embarassing haha, but Elder Buckner was super chill about it, and his message was so fire.  Highlights - This week finally stopped raining, and so now it's been like 37-40 degrees Celsius the whole week, which has been brutal - Our friend Juan Carlos from Peru invited us over for dinner and made Mexican refried beans, chicken, and rice. It was SO FIRE, I miss refried beans so much. It tasted like heaven - We went to eat with the Santos family again this week, and we invited our friend Algier who is from the Philippines to come with us. It was so fire, they click...

  大家好！ Well this week was interesting for a lot of different reasons, but two of which were: one, we had 14 friends confirm for church on Saturday night, and then the Sunday Morning Monster got all our friends and only 4 of them showed up. It was sad, but the friends we did have come were so lit and the members helped so much! Super cool to see the members just take our friends under their wing and help them feel welcome. And then the other thing. We went all the way to Tung Chung and me and Elder Shields met this guy named John who was an African American guy from Texas. He started talking to us and was like "I know you Mormon boys, yous my homies." And then he told us a story about a time he rescued two Elders who got kidnapped by some high gang members who made the Elders read them the Bible while they were high. So that was nuts. Then he said he had a question for us and asked "Where's Judah?" And we were so lost. He then spent the next 30 minutes of our tim...