September 27, 2022

Hey everybody!

Transfers happened on Monday. Kind of. I mean. My companion and I stayed together in the same area, so did they really happen? ;) We did get some new people in the zone, though. Both Zone Leaders are new, we've got an Elder who's training, and a few other new faces to boot. I got lucky though, I already know everybody in my district pretty well, and we get along nicely. 

We also started off the new cycle well, we went and played volleyball and an impromptu version of 4 Square where you can't use your hands. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. :P But it was really fun!

I'm trying to wrack my brains for anything that happened last week, but honestly, I'm too exhausted to remember. :P Oh, we did have an awesome Ward Activity to celebrate Independence Day. Each of the organizations did something for a talent show, and we ate some great food! So that was awesome. And yeah, that's about it. :)

- Elder Blankenbiller

September 20, 2022

 ¡Viva México!

That's right everybody, this last week we had Mexican Independence Day! And boy, was it a party. Actually, this whole week was kind of a party, to be honest. The fact that everybody was drunk all week didn't exactly make it easy to find new people to teach. :P But hey, we got to eat Pozole, Chiles en Nogada, and all the other traditional foods, so no complaints from me. We also got to see some fun fireworks on Thursday night, even if we weren't actually able to go to the Grito. (Then again, probably for the best we didn't, I've heard it gets kinda crazy here. :P )

But yeah, we spent the evening on the 15th at the Zone Leaders' apartment, in order to go with them to Zone Conference the next day. And that meant that we perhaps maybe stayed up just a little bit late playing Monopoly like three or four times. :P Fun stuff, that. :) On Friday, we went to Zone Conference, which went really well! We had a few workshops about a couple different things, like how to more efficiently use the online organization tools we have in the mission (Which I've been pushing for a while now), and how to not die in an earthquake. (Speaking of earthquakes... but that can wait a few seconds) We wrapped up the conference with the testimonies of people going home next week, and with President giving a powerful testimony about missionary work. 

And the moment you've all been waiting for: What happened with the earthquake? Well I'll tell you. First, some history: In 1985 and 2017, there were two very big earthquakes, both occurring on September 19th. In 2017, the earthquake happened right after the national earthquake drill. And this year... Yesterday, September 19th, 2022, we had an earthquake drill at 12:19pm. And not even an hour later, the alarm sounded, this time, because the ground was moving. Don't worry, everything is fine here, the earthquake happened southwest of here in Michoacan (at a 7.4 magnitude), and we just felt the edge of it. Although we did get a small ash exhalation from one of the nearby volcanoes, so that could be interesting. :P

But yeah, that was an exciting week. We'll see if this next week can keep up. Have a good one!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Photos:
- Earthquake data stuff 
- The airport? 👀
- Some homemade sushi 
- Quesadillas are different in Mexico 
- We went shopping for drug rugs 
Video:
- The metro can be busy sometimes 

September 13, 2022

Hey everybody!

This week raced past at a speed I can only describe as 'breakneck'. We were all over the place, between lessons, interviews with President, District Leader Council, helping people move, and waking up to do it all over again. 

One of the things that stood out to me most this week was a promise from my Patriarchal Blessing, which mentions that I will experience firsthand the Lord’s strength when my own is insufficient. This week, I'm pretty sure that was literal. :P Still, it's amazing to me how much the Lord can get done when we're trying to do our part. 

Another powerful ally in this work? The Relief Society. I don't know what we would do without then sometimes. We have a goal to hold as many Family Home Evenings as possible with member families, and had already tried calling people, sending messages, posting in the ward group chat, and nothing was working. Until we asked the RS President to help out. She sent one (1) singular message to the group, asking people to sign up for different days to meet with us, and about half an hour later, we had a working calendar of meetings. I just don't know man. XD

Alrighty, that's enough out of me. Have a great week! 

- Elder Blankenbiller 

Photos:

- Helping move other Elders (again)

- The city center is decked out for Independence day this week 

- Me with lights

- ¡Viva México!

September 6, 2022

How's it going everybody?

First and foremost, we had a baptism this week! Hermano Humberto has been in teaching since last year, and has had a baptismal date since April (He decided he wanted to be baptized in September because it's Mexican Independence month. Literally no other reason XP). And this Saturday, he finally got baptized! He also invited some family to come to the baptism, so that was special. It was kind of funny, he asked me at the very last minute if I would baptize him, so we had to scramble a bit to get white pants for me. :P But it all worked out in the end.

Other than that, just more of the usual, we've been doing our best to find more people to teach. It's been a bit tricky these last few weeks, I'll be honest. I think we probably found maybe five or six in total? But we're working on it. 

This coming week, we've got a lot to look forward to, between District Leader Council with our mission President, Interviews the day after that, Zone Conference and Mexican Independence Day right around the corner. Yep, it's an exciting time to be in Mexico, that's for sure. That being said, I'm a bit pressed for time, so this'll have to do for now. Hope you all have a great week!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Photos: 

- We went to the Merced last week, and bought a bunch of odds and ends.

- Also, one of the other elders got a surprise bath from rainwater drainage :P

- Bug

- Baptism

- Cooking again!

- Chilaquiles

- We found missionaries from the South Mission (Their office is in our area)