February 22, 2022

Hello everyone! I have now officially passed my year mark, and am now an old man. Retirement is still a little far away, however, so don't worry, these weekly emails won't be going anywhere anytime soon. 

So. To bring you up to speed... This week has been pretty crazy. We had a special Devotional with Elder Dale G. Renlund on Tuesday, which was super awesome. He and his wife answered a bunch of questions sent in by the mission, and my main takeaway was just how powerful his testimony is. It was such a powerful spiritual experience, and one I'm definitely not going to forget anytime soon. 

Other things: We've seen so much progress here in the area, and the miracles just don't stop coming. We've been able to find a lot of new people to teach for this coming week, helped out a bunch in the ward, and we've got two really awesome people lined up for baptism in the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be around to see it. :P

Either way, today was pretty good, we had a Zone Activity, the mission office bought us some pizzas, and so on. Can't complain about that. And, well, I'm running out of time on P-Day, and I still haven't said a word to my family, so I think I'm gonna go. :P See you all next week!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Photos:

- My companion's bimonthly spa treatment

- King Kong, Dull Island

- More Sunset

- Tacos again, yes, don't judge

- Zone Activity

- Professional Stenographer

February 14, 2022

Elder Blankenbiller’s mission has a mission conference with Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles tomorrow. So he has p-day today instead of tomorrow.

Hello everybody!

Man, I don't even know where to start. This week has been absolutely packed, in all aspects. We've had a ton of meetings, a ton of member visits, and above all, a ton of miracles. And I don't use that word too lightly. This week we've seen people's lives change, we've been able to find some awesome people to teach, and we had a record-breaking seven investigators come to church with us on Sunday! To keep things from going too long, I'll give you the highlight reel:

We've been talking to this guy named Pedro. When I first met him about two months ago, he was not doing too well. His house was a mess, he mostly just laid in bed all day, and had no motivation to do anything. And just the other day, we were at his house again, and seeing the progress he's made is amazing. He told us straight up, "Ever since you guys came that first time, things have started going better." It's been so cool to see his progress, and he came to church with us on Sunday!

Another miracle we've seen is with Carlos, he's been working toward his baptismal date, and trying to quit a cigarette addiction. His motivation and willingness to keep on trying honestly just surprises me every time we meet with him. We're super excited for him, and he can't wait to get baptized either. 

And lastly, we've just had people come up to us in the street and ask to learn more, or come to church, or whatever. It's really cool to see things coming together here in this area, especially since, to be honest, it was pretty difficult at the start. 

And that leads us right to my spiritual thought for this week. Trust in the timing of the Lord. It's really not an easy thing to do. We want our problems fixed now, our prayers answered even sooner. But sometimes, that isn't what's best for us. Sometimes we need to struggle a bit before we can succeed. But if you think about it, it makes the success so much more exciting, and the experiences along the way show us that God values the efforts we've made, even if they don't yield fruits right away. So please, trust Him. He knows what's best for you, and He has promised us that that is all that He will do. So just trust Him!

Anyway. I've got a thing with a guy at a place. So I'll see you all next week! 

- Elder Blankenbiller 

Photos:

- Post-apocalyptic cityscape 

- Tacos 

- Floating stairs 

- Floating stairs + Exotic Bird

- Just your friendly neighborhood Gringos 

February 8, 2022

Another week, another email. Wonder when I'll finally run out of steam and miss a week. Then again, I'm sure you'll all remind me very kindly if I ever forget. So I'm not too worried.

Anyway, moving on to this week. Bit of a blur, to be honest, I don't think we've been able to rest since last P-Day. Too many people to visit, too many calls to make, and too much to get done. :P It's good, though. It's nice to be so busy you don't notice time passing until it's time to go to bed. Makes the days go by real fast, that's for sure. Speaking of time, I'm a week away from having a whole year in my mission! 

Moving on, here's a few funny stories from this week. We met this one guy, Gerardo, on the street one day, and he seemed really interested in meeting with us. And then the next three days, we went to visit him, only to have his daughter come out and inform us that he was stone cold drunk. So. Maybe one day we'll find this guy sober. Who knows.

Other news: Carlos is making tons of progress! He got married, and he's down to only 4 cigars a day, when he used to be all the way up to 17-18! We're super proud of him. And if you guys can keep him in your prayers, we're hoping to get him baptized either this month or the next. :)

I think those are the most interesting goings on, everything else would make this email very long. If you want more stories, feel free to shoot me a complaint, and I'll be happy to give you the long version. ;)

Hope you all have a great week! 

- Elder Blankenbiller 

Photos:

- A cool car, rare for these parts

- We discovered the literal spawn of Satan

- Me

- Kronos the Dog, Reaper of Souls, Devourer of Children

- The end of the Metro 

February 1, 2022

Hey everybody! How's it going? 

It's February today, for anyone who didn't realize. I started my mission a year ago in February. I'm only two weeks or so away from a year! Kinda makes me feel old. :P Then again, I've still got a month left of being a teenager, so I'll enjoy it while I can. 

Anyways. Stories from this week... I sort of skipped Friday. I woke up at two in the morning with stomach pain, and probably had to use the bathroom once every fifteen minutes or so until seven or eight, at which point I had become super dehydrated. So I spent the whole day just trying to rehydrate, not die while we walked around, and then fell asleep between lessons in the afternoon. Not the most fun day, but I'm back to normal now. 

Other than that... I don't know that anything too crazy happened. Just normal missionary stuff. Taught lots of lessons, did our best to involve the members more in the work, met new people to teach, all that good stuff. And yeah. That's honestly about all I can think of. Just a good week, honestly. So I think I'll leave it there. Until next week!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Photos:

- Two white guys on a bridge 

- Air pollution 

- More air pollution

- Imitation American food

- Edgy anime pig

- Cheesecake 

- Space Jam