Week 63: Stop ghosting us Derrald!!

 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 visited our member from Australia who dropped his crazy life story on us, that in the space of three months his wife told him she wanted to get divorced, then he got a cancer diagnosis, and then got hit by a bus while riding a scooter. But he then shared with us how he got through it by just doing the little things consistently, keeping promises to yourself, regularly renewing your spirit with church and scriptures. Really inspiring. Then he crushed me in Backgammon and reminded me how much I love that game (Branden will understand)
- We convinced our summer missionary Jake to go TikTok dance finding because he loves doing TikTok dances (He's a Filipino) But we couldn't find any Filipinas to talk to. But he was willing so that's what counts
- We got transfer news! I'll be leaving Victoria 1st and going back to Cantonese work! I'm staying Zone Leader but moving to an area called Sha Tin, which is in the same zone as my very first area. This is actually a dream area for me and my comp is also someone I love, so I'm really excited! Really sad to be leaving Victoria First though, I've absolutely loved getting to know these members and serving with them!

Spiritual Thought
I read a BYU devotional this week called "Be 100% Responsible" by Lynn G. Robbins. My favorite part of the talk is when he said "A determined man finds a way, the other man finds an excuse." I loved that he talks about how there is always a way to deal with any situation because at the very least we always have the ability to choose how we react to things. I've seen on my mission that the times when I actively decided how to react to things that happen are the times I've been the most happy. What's happening to me and around me doesn't matter because I'm in control of how I will react to those things that happen. We have been given that ability, we just have to choose to use it!

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller


Google Photos

Pictures
1. Bye bye Wan Chai chapel
2. The castle our Branch Mission leader lives in. It's not all his, but he lives in a BIG room inside
3. Cool flowers
4. Visiting Noumonvi at his house
5. My favorite security guard at the Wan Chai chapel (the bald one)







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