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!