March 8, 2021

 Hello again everyone!

This week has been pretty awesome, and crazy busy. The pace of learning Spanish keeps getting faster and faster, which is probably a good thing. I definitely want to learn as much as possible before I get into the field. We also had another opportunity to teach some member families in Mexico, and that was just as amazing as last time. It is so cool to see these people who live so far away, and yet share the same beliefs and have the same spirit as the church at home. It was a powerful experience for me to see how connected we are by our shared faith.

My district has been amazing. We've tried to schedule a lot of time to hang out when we aren't in class, and we practice Spanish, study together, and get to know each other better. They are such amazing people, and I've loved every minute of time we spend together. 

Speaking of spending time together, I got to meet up with a few of the other Elders in my district today. All of us are assigned to Mexico, three to Mexico City East, and two to the Mexico City North East Mission. So we all had to show up at the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City to finish our Visa applications. I flew up at 6:15, and got there a little after 9:30. We all met up at the airport, and headed over to the consulate for our appointments. Those appointments only took a few minutes each though, and none of us were flying back home until after 3:00, so we went over to one of the Elder's houses, who lived nearby. We grabbed some lunch, played some ping pong, and got to hang out in person for the first time, which was really cool.

To top it all off, today is also my nineteenth birthday, so that was a pretty cool way to spend it. After I flew back to San Diego, I went and had Asian food with my family, and then ate an amazing chocolate strawberry cake that my mom made. All in all, a really solid birthday.

For my spiritual note, I'd like to share what I thought I had when I got on the plane this morning. I've always thought flying is super cool. The fact that we humans figured out how to strap wings to a big tube of metal and defy gravity is just astounding. But even more impressive is the view from just above the clouds, with the sun rising in the east. It was so beautiful to me, looking at this world God created from so high in the air. And I was reminded of a scripture, Alma 30:44 "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it." That scripture, and the view, always reminds me that God really did create everything, and He did it because of His love for us. I hope we take the opportunity to admire His creations when we get the chance. 

Keep on Keeping on,

Elder Blankenbiller