Week 66: Maybe the new AC was the friends we made along the way

 大家好！


On Tuesday we were supposed to be getting a new AC installed to replace a broken one in our apartment, so we had to stay inside our apartment during the window when it was supposed to come, which was 9am-2pm. So we called the dude who was supposed to be bringing the new one to ask if he could bring it earlier so we could leave, but when we called him he was like "How did you get this number?? Never call again!" And then hung up. Then he never showed up so we were stuck inside almost the whole day and he didn't even come lols. I was pretty annoyed for a little but lowkey it's just really funny at this point haha

Highlights
- We had Elder Woo of the area presidency do a mission tour with us and so we got a ton of amazing training on giving people invitations, promising blessings, and sharing our testimonies. It was incredible and I got a bit of a wake up call that I could definitely improve in that area, so I've been practicing a lot of what I learned! His wife also gave some training which was awesome, her Enlgish isn't super good as her first language is Spanish, but her training was powerful. I felt the Spirit so strongly and was so inspired by what she shared. Really cool testimony to the power of testimony even with a language barrier!
- I got to go on exchanges the night of my birthday, so the Elders in the apartment I live in did a bit of a party. Elder Chin from Malaysia made some Malaysian curry and convinced me that Malaysia makes the best curry in this world, it was phenominal
- On Friday we had MLC with Elder Woo which was also fire, we got some really good council and advice for how to help the missionaries
- Elder Scow and I did a full exchange that day just for convenience and had a crazy miracle. Through a TON of random tiny promptings we ended up in the right place and the right time to run into Sister Wood, the less active wife of the Victoria First branch president, the branch I just served in. She has been less active for a while but invited us to have Japanese BBQ with her and her 3 sons. We shared a spiritual thought at the end and Elder Scow shared a super powerful testimony of the Restoration and the true church of Jesus Christ. Super cool miracle!

Spiritual Thought
I've really connected with Elder Hugh B. Brown's story of the Gardner and the current bush recently. For those of you who don't know the story, it's basically about a gardener who sees that he has a currant bush that isn't giving fruit, and so he prunes it back to it's stumps. The bush is so hurt because it had grown so big only to be cut down by the gardner. But the gardener reminds the bush that he is the gardener, and has better things in store for the bush. I've really connected with that because after the emergency transfer last week and the things I've been struggling with here I had started to feel like I was in the wrong place. I had been in an area that was thriving with a companion I really liked and we were grinding. And then I got thrown all the way over here to where I'm having these struggles. But I came across this story this week and it reminded me to humble myself and remember that God is the gardener. He knows exactly where I need to be and there are no accidents. I'm here for a reason, even though I maybe don't like it haha. I know God has a perfect plan for us, and part of faith is trusting that even when it looks hard or uncomfortable. Keep pushing forward and trust in the Savior's power to help us through these hard things!

Love you all!
Elder Blankenbiller 

Google Photos

Pictures
1. Malaysian curry
2. Lunch with Charles
3. Mission tour
4. Balloon animal find!
5. Birthday party






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