April 27, 2021

 Señores y Señoras, Hermanos y Hermanas... ¡Bienvenido a la celebración de mi primera mes en México!

Four whole weeks already. I honestly can't even begin to describe how amazing this experience has been so far. It's been so awesome meeting people, sharing the gospel, improving my Spanish at an honestly unexpected rate (praise be for that), and of course, the food has been nothing to complain about either.

Life in Mexico has definitely taken some getting used to, but here are some random things that have stuck out to me as just being so strange, coming here from the United States. First of all, power lines. They are everywhere, especially in the outskirts of the city. You can hardly look up with out seeing a whole cluster of them, weaving every which way. It's like a big net cast over the whole place. You get used to it pretty quick though, and they don't really tend to give you any trouble. 

Second, permits. You don't need them. Want to sell some bread? Go ahead, you don't need my permission. Or the governments, either. Want people to hire you to repair their power lines? Don't need a permit for that either, just grab some rubber gloves and a toolkit and poof, you're an electrician. Makes it hard to know who to trust, which is largely why I've been repairing things around here myself. So if you ever need a Mexico-certified electrician, I'm only a thousand or two miles away. 

Third, dogs. I don't think it's the same in every part of the city, but at least where I am, you can't make it more than a block without seeing two or three stray dogs. For the most part, they keep to themselves. We've only ever seen two aggressive ones, and my companion freaked out both times. I just rode on past. They weren't really big enough to do anything to me anyway. We did find an absolutely massive dog once. He was super friendly, he sat down by us while we were waiting to meet up with the Zone Leaders. Good times. 

And fourth, police. They always, and I mean *always* have their lights on. No siren either, just the lights. It's almost uncanny  in a way, seeing them drive around, lights flashing, but not a sound from their sirens. So strange. 

Anyway, that's just some things I've noticed about life in Mexico. Now back to the missionary stuff. I had my first Zone Conference on Friday. Nothing beats sitting around for four or so hours trying your best to understand the message because it's all in Spanish. The food was good, though. At least that's still a staple of church activities. Come for the food, stay for the chance of more food. ;)

Speaking of food (or the lack thereof), we had the opportunity to be part of a special fast this last Sunday. We, along with many others in the nearby stakes, fasted for the number of Covid cases to go down enough that we could reopen the temple here, and that everyone would be able to begin having meetings in person again. No word on any of that yet, but we're still praying! (And if any of you want to send prayers our way for that, you're more than welcome to!) 

I got to break my fast with probably one of my new favorite things to eat in the whole world: fresh mangoes. Man. I know I've said it before, but the fruit here is something else. Those mangoes were divine. And the best part is, the church is a few blocks away from where they set up their street market, so on Mondays, we can go buy a bunch of fresh fruit for cheap! Now if only they could get the memo about good chocolate here too... but that's probably asking for too much. 

In other news, we had a miracle happen on Sunday. An Hermano we've been teaching, Hermano Hugo, has been doing amazing, and he was more or less all set to be baptized in two weeks. His wife, however, had expressed that she was not interested. But on Sunday, we got a voice message from him saying that he had talked with his wife about the experiences he'd been having, both in our lessons, and his own prayers and study. He shared with her that he knew that he had felt the Spirit confirming to him that these things were true. And that convinced her! She told him that she wants to be baptized too, and be united with him in coming closer to our Savior. We were so excited to hear that, and we immediately set about planning how and what we needed to do to help her prepare to be baptized. It means we needed to move the baptismal date back a few weeks, so fingers crossed they don't kick me out of here during transfers in two weeks. But yeah, that was pretty amazing!

There's so much more I could write, but I'm only sort of willing to test your patience. If you've stuck with me so far, good on you. If you got bored, I don't know what to tell you, I didn't think I was that bad at writing. But for those of you who stuck around, I'd like to share a spiritual thought that occurred to me the other day, in the strangest of manners. 

It dawned on me as I was cutting up a mango. For those of you who have never eaten a smaller mango before, the seed in the middle actually takes up a lot of room and can make it difficult sometimes to separate the nice juicy parts from the hard, fibrous parts surrounding the seed. However, the juicy part of the fruit is more than worth the time it takes to separate. I compare this to our study of the Scriptures. Sometimes, there are hard parts. They don't taste very good, and they make us want to throw up our hands, wash them of the whole mess, and go do something else with our time. BUT! If we are willing to stick through it, to get past the hard parts, I promise you that you will find the juicy parts every time. The verses that will bring you comfort and peace when life gets hard. The verses that help you fend off temptation when you are feeling especially vulnerable. The verses that confirm to you, in your heart, and in your mind, that the words are true, and that they matter. Please don't give up on them just because there are hard parts. If I had given up cutting my mango, I wouldn't have ever known how amazing it could taste. So I challenge you this week, go find a part of the Scriptures that maybe you've only skimmed in the past, or skipped over entirely. I promise you that if you search, ponder, and pray about these things, you will find hidden gems of wisdom that the Lord has prepared specifically for you. 

Aaaaaand that's a wrap folks! Thanks for coming, if you ever feel like shooting me an email, I'd love to hear about whats going on in your lives! I miss you all, but I've got work to do, so until next week, this has been your host. Editing was also done by me, (and possibly my mother, I don't know how much she changes these), our funding is provided by your tithing dollars, and our weekly sponsor is, as always, The Atonment of Jesus Christ. Have you had problems with sin? Of course you have, you're only human! Well boy, have I got the deal of an eternity for you! With five simple points*, you too can be forgiven of your sins, and learn and grow as a person! Interested? Contact your local church leaders or missionaries today! 

*side effects may include an increase in love of God and your fellow man. If you feel an overwhelming urge to be a better person, we are not liable for any changes that you make in your life accordingly.

And lastly, but certainly not least, a quick message from our producer! "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." - Ether 12:4

And always remember, God loves you! 

And so do I!

-Elder Blankenbiller

1. Our mission president singing happy birthday to some Elders at our Zone Conference

2. Our cooking supplies (because I miss being able to cook whatever I want)

3. Nothing. I just got my camera battery mailed to me, so maybe next week there'll be more to show. Sorry!

April 20, 2021

 ¡Ya fue tres semanas! 

It never ceases to surprise me how quickly the time passes when you're busy working. And I've been doing my best to keep busy. We still aren't allowed to meet in the homes of members, so my mission still kind of feels like an office job. Wake up, head to the office (church building) and then study and teach people until it's time to go back to the apartment. I'm definitely grateful that we can keep busy though. I know I'd for sure have gone crazy if I was just sitting around all day thinking about what I'll do when I get home.

Also, a couple of adventures this week! First up, actually late on the evening of last P-Day, I headed back to the mission offices to fill out some forms, and then headed to the National Immigration Office in downtown Mexico City! It was really cool to see some of the actual city part of Mexico City. I'm on kind of the fringe, so to speak. The city was both very different from what I'm used to, but also felt exactly the same as every other big city I've ever been in. Tall buildings, busy people, the works. 

Anyway, after grabbing maybe an hour and a half of sleep, we headed to the immigration office at about 3:30 or so in the morning, having been told that there's always a huge line, and we needed to get there early. Kind of like the DMV. Well, it was a good idea in theory. In practice, not so much. We probably stood around for another three and a half hours before anyone else really started showing up. So waking up super early was kinda pointless. On the bright side, I am now legally allowed to be in Mexico, so I'm here until they kick me out, I guess. 

After that whole thing, I got driven back to my area, slept for about twenty minutes, and then got right back to work teaching people. I was exhausted that night. 

Friday morning, I threw a few things into my bag, and headed off for my first companion exchange! That was pretty exciting. I went with one of our Zone Leaders named Elder Green. You may recognize him from such places as the cover of the Come Follow Me manual for Sunday School in 2021. I'm not joking. You can open up the gospel library app and see for yourself. He's the redhead on the front cover. 

Anyway, awesome guy, and the best part - he's American, so we could have actual conversations about things instead of very surface level 'I'm learning Spanish' kind of conversations. We also played some chess. And stayed up all night because apparently it was their turn to watch the water pump in the night to make sure the motor didn't burn out. But who needs sleep anyway, am I right? 

Other than that, it was a good day. We taught some amazing people, and had one super awesome spiritual experience with an Hermana se llama Maria. We knew that she had a hard time attending church on Sunday because she needed to work to support her parents (housing, healthcare, etc.) But we felt the impression that we really needed to invite her to come to church anyway. So we did, teaching a quick lesson about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She was not having any of it. We were kind of ready to back off, but he and I both felt that we needed to keep trying to invite her. So we did, once more, reading a scripture about how the Lord will bless us for keeping the commandments, and invited her again. She flat out refused. But we still felt like we needed to press the issue. We invited her twice more, promising that she would be blessed for her sacrifice, and that if she would come to church, she would sell more than she ever had before in the following week. Nothing. We needed to close out the lesson, because we had another appointment coming up, so we asked her if she would be willing to give a closing prayer, and if she would pray to know that this was what God wanted, and if He would really bless her for it. She got halfway through the prayer before she burst into tears. The Spirit was so strong. She told God that she understood that He would bless her, and that she was willing to try. It was such an amazing testament to the power of the Holy Ghost, and how important it is for us to be aware, and able to act on its quiet promptings.

The other cool thing I got to do was bike up the side of one of the hills surrounding Mexico City to deliver a Book of Mormon. It felt like real missionary work, for the first time ;) That was a great time, though. I really enjoyed being out and about, and doing some real physical work, instead of just sitting in the church building all day. 

Other things worthy of mention: on Saturday, I ate probably one of the best hamburgers I've ever had the pleasure of eating. It was enormous, and I loved every bite. Praise be for that. I love me some good food.

Also, as of today, I've finished the other three standard works, and finally begun the Bible. I shall count it a success if I can at least understand maybe 50% of it or so :P Nah, I'm sure it'll be good. It'll just take a lot of patience, prayer, and wishing I'd ever gotten to take the Old Testament in Seminary. Oh well. I'll keep you updated if I learn anything cool. Which will probably be a lot, to be honest. 

And last but not least, my spiritual thought for the week. I can now testify to the power of a positive attitude, coupled with trust in God. So, the morning of my companion exchange, it felt like everything was going wrong. We were planning on getting quick showers in, but ended up abandoning that just because we didn't have a lot of time. After that, we had to find a way to get my stuff over to the other chapel, in the other area where I would be staying. After a few attempts to rig up a makeshift rope backpack harness thing, I just stuffed my bag into a big fabric shopping bag, and called it good. And it was good. For about 20 feet or so. Then both the handles broke clean off the shopping bag. So, I ran back inside, and decided I didn't really need that much stuff, so I threw a few things in my small shoulder bag, and called it good. We went back outside, and lo and behold, my bike chain had fallen off. An easy enough fix, I was able to pull it back into place no problem, but now my hands were covered in grease. So, back inside to get them all washed off. And finally, on the road. I was pretty frustrated, but I decided to try to have a good attitude about the whole thing, and just trust that it had happened for a reason. And you know what, things started making sense as soon as we got over there. I was informed that the chapel we were at was more or less the halfway point, and that we had another twenty minutes or so to ride, and it would be much more strenuous than our normal route in our area. Also, there was a big hill in the middle of the route, where another Elder had had his chain fall off, and nearly been hit by a car. And thus we see that the Lord works in mysterious ways to accomplish His purposes. 

But seriously, it was incredible how it worked out. I would never have made it all the way with a suitcase, and since I took the time to fix my chain, I avoided possibly getting severly injured. God was definitely looking out for me that morning. So my challenge to you is this: If you find yourself having a bad morning, where everything just goes wrong, try to keep a good attitude, and trust that things will work out. I promise you that when you look back on those hard days, you will see the hand of the Lord working in your life. 

Alrighty, that's all from me for this week. Next time you hear from me  I'll have been in Mexico for a whole month! (Already, I know!)

- Elder Blankenbiller 

April 12, 2021

 Hey everyone!

As you may have seen from the title of this email, I ate a rat this week! Don't be too concerned for my health, it was a chocolate rat that one of the members brought us for dessert one day. It was really funny when we opened the box, and there were just a couple of rat-like things inside. Great fun, honestly. I've really enjoyed the food here so far. The members are so kind, and bring us lunch every day. So far I've had enchiladas, tacos, a soup, a whole lot of different kinds of chicken, and a cactus! Yes, that is correct. A cactus. Didn't taste at all like I expected, but I kind of enjoyed it, to be honest. Also, on Monday, I finally got to go to one of the street markets and buy some fruit! It was delicious. 

Anyway, moving on from the food things. It's been another amazing week in the mission field! We set goals at the beginning of every week for how many new people we want to try to teach, invite to sacrament meetings, and invite to be baptized. This week, we almost doubled the number we set for our goal! We even had two people in one day accept the invitation to be baptized! That was definitely a miracle. 

I've had a lot of little miracles happen while I've been serving here so far. First and foremost on my mind: The Lord has definitely been keeping me in good health, because from the stories I've heard, almost everyone else who came down here with me from the MTC got sick in week one. So I'm super grateful that I haven't gotten any bugs yet. Another small miracle happened on Thursday. My companion and I were riding home from the church, and the brake on my bike decided to stop working. My companion was worried that it was gonna cost a lot to repair, but I said I would take a look at it when we got home. As luck would have it, nothing serious had gone wrong, the brake cable had just slipped at the end, making it too loose to work. Fortunately, I both had brought my multitool with me, and had paid attention to my dad when he used to help me fix my bike. I was able to fix it no problem, and save us a bunch of money!

Saturday was a great day for teaching people. We had four meetings that afternoon/evening, all of which were such amazing experiences. The people here are so eager to learn, and have such powerful faith already. It's clear to see that the Lord has been preparing people everywhere to hear His message. I can feel the Spirit so strongly when we're teaching, even if I can only understand one out of every three words that gets said. It's a work in progress on that front.

Another thing I've been working on, (when I can find the time to fit it in) is practicing the piano again. I've never really given it as much attention as I should, and it's amazing how quickly you can improve if you just put the time in! So that's my spiritual thought for this week. Maybe you have something you wish you were good at, or a talent that you want to develop more. Make a goal, and put in the time! I promise that you'll see results faster than you expect! 

On Sunday, we got to meet in the chapel for what I'm told is the first time in a long time. It was an awesome meeting, and we had seven people that we invited to attend who came to the meeting! It was awesome. On top of that, it was a fast and testimony meeting, so they had the opportunity to listen to the members bear their testimonies. My companion and I got up to bear our testimonies too, me doing the best I could with the ever increasing amount of Spanish I know. It was an amazing experience. 

Anyway, I got people to serve, a language to continue learning, and spirits to uplift! I'll be here again next week!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Attached: A sketch I made of our apartment, and my companion and me at our office.

April 6, 2021

Alrighty, this email will be shorter on account of it not having been a whole week. Fortunately, it's been a really good time since then. I've had a couple opportunities to teach people by now, but there are two particular ones that I want to share. First, we taught un Hermano named Alejandro. He's Catholic, but he's been having trouble with his faith. He loves to read the Bible, and he has a lot of questions, but the Catholic church isn't always supportive of that kind of thing. So he came to us. We could tell right away that the Lord had prepared him to accept our message, and we were even able to invite him to be baptized right off the bat. He was super accepting of what we had to say, and he already had amazing faith in Jesus Christ. Such an awesome experience. 

The other was another Hermano named Enrique. He's been having trouble finding a new job after he lost his during the middle of the pandemic. I felt prompted by the Spirit to share an experience from my own life with him. I shared about the time when my dad was out of a job, and how that was a very scary time for me and my family, but that what I remembered most from the experience was the power that our prayers had to bring peace into our lives, even in the midst of a difficult situation. Despite my Spanish not being the best, the Spirit was very powerful, and it was an awesome experience. I'm excited to keep teaching the people here. They are amazing. 

Anyway, quick last thing from me before it's back to work: I really enjoyed listening to General Conference this weekend! So many great messages. My personal favorite would have to be from President Nelson (Love that guy) when he spoke about increasing our faith. I especially loved when he said that we should not minimize the faith we already have. We should always be trying to increase our faith, but we should not be discouraged with our current level of faith. I would encourage all of us to take his suggestion to pray and ask God how we can increase our faith. I know we will be blessed for it, and that it will become increasingly important in the days to come. 

Stay faithful!

- Elder Blankenbiller

April 1, 2021

 Hola!

Sorry for the late email this week, It's been a wild ride this week. I finished the MTC, and then packed my bags and flew to Mexico City on Tuesday! A quick hop from San Diego to the Phoenix International airport, and then another three and a half hours or so down to Mexico. I got to fill out all the customs forms, and try my best not to mess up and get kicked out of the country ;)

Once I landed, I made my way through customs and immigration, got a nice stamp in my passport, and then met up with a few of the other Elders from the MTC. We hung out together until we got picked up by our mission presidents. Before that, though, one of our teachers from the MTC came to the airport to meet us in person! Hermano Gallegos is such a funny guy, and so enthusiastic and excited for us to be in Mexico. It was awesome to be able to meet him after all this time seeing him on a computer screen in the MTC. 

After that, my mission president showed up to take me and a few of the other new Elders to the mission offices. For my mission, the offices are actually right next to the temple! So I already got to see the temple. It's a lot bigger than I thought, and it's very pretty. 

After that, we had a meeting with all of the other new Elders, and one new Hermana. The mission president talked to us about some of the mission specific rules, and then we got to talk for a while and get to know each other. According to them, we are basically the first group to come straight from the MTC to Mexico since the start of the pandemic. So that's pretty cool, to say the least.

After that, we got our assignments for what area we would be going to, and who our new companions would be, and then we hung out until our different rides got there. That was when we learned that we were woefully unprepared to navigate this country with our current level of language skills. Plus, no phones for us, so no way to communicate with the mission office when things go awry. And, well... they did. 

Nothing too serious, but kind of a hassle for everyone involved: I got a ride to my assigned area along with another Elder, who was assigned to a different area. However, it wasn't really communicated to us very well which of us was supposed to get dropped off first. So yeah, I ended up in the wrong area for my first night on the mission. They dropped me off at the church building, and then I got a ride with a member to the Elder's apartment. Fortunately, it didn't really mess anything up. I just spent the night with the zone leaders in that area (Who have a parrot in their backyard) and then in the morning, packed back up and got a ride back to the church with all my stuff, and then got another ride to another church building, this time in my correct area, and *then* got another ride on a very sketchy minibus to the apartment where I would actually be staying. The assistants to the president kindly informed me that yes, this was in fact the sketchiest part of the mission, a mission, I might add, that has only allowed two Hermanas to serve anywhere except for the Visitors Center at the temple. So yep, that's why I was too busy to send an email. :P

Anyway. Other things that I have done. I get to use a bike to get around, which is really nice because Mexico City is very flat, so there aren't too many hills we have to climb to get places. My companion and I are getting along really well so far. We've had a great time trying to learn each other's languages. I also got to help teach three lessons already. Not bad for my first day, I think. 

I think that's about all from me. Before I finish, I'd like to share something I read in my personal study. In 2 Nephi 11:2, Nephi talks about how his soul delights in reading the words of Isaiah. Since conference weekend is coming up quick, I would encourage you to watch as much as you can, and to find messages that your soul delights in.

¡Hasta luego!

- Elder Blankenbiller