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

March 22, 2021

Hey everybody!

Today marks the start of my last week in the MTC! It's already been five weeks since I started, that's just crazy. I've got my visa, I've got my flight plans, I've started packing up, it's really happening. Which kind of caught me off guard. When I started the MTC, I was definitely expecting to be temporarily reassigned before getting to go to Mexico. Guess that wasn't the plan for me. So as of next week, I'll be writing from Mexico! I'm super excited for that. 

This past week of MTC classes has been pretty awesome, we've been pushing really hard to learn all of the lessons in Spanish, and have been practicing each individual topic over and over again until we can teach them all together without even needing notes. And for the most part, we do really well. There are still plenty of words to learn, but it's all going much more smoothly than it used to, so I'm definitely happy about that.

I'm very excited for this week, we'll be doing a lot more practice teaching lessons, and trying to cram in as much language learning as possible. At this point, we're all super excited to be able to begin the next phase of our missions. I definitely can hardly wait. I'm so glad to have the opportunity to serve a mission, and even more excited to be able to serve where I was called. It's such a miracle that even in the midst of these crazy times, things just work out for the better. I know it will be hard sometimes, and probably a lot at first, but God has a plan for us, and I trust Him.

It reminds me of the scripture D&C 121, where God tells Joseph Smith that 'his afflictions shall be but a small moment, and if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high'. I know that God is ready and waiting to bless us when we are in the midst of adversity. All we need to do is have faith in Him, and pray sincerely for his aid in our lives. 

Yo sé que esta es verdad,

- Elder Blankenbiller 

March 15, 2021

 Hola!

Another week has gone by already, and I feel like this one went by even faster than usual. I think that mostly has to do with the fact that I missed class on Monday when I went to Salt Lake, so I had a lot of catching up to do. Being busy makes time move pretty quick. 

Spanish is coming along nicely, with the possible exception of a couple of verb tenses that we haven't covered yet. Conjugation is kinda getting tricky to remember. But I'm gonna keep on practicing until I can at least tell that I'm saying it wrong. Fingers crossed on that one, I've only got two weeks left in the MTC. After that, they decide where to send me, and I take a crash course in how Spanish actually sounds when it's spoken by real people. The computer can only do so much. Fortunately for me, I've always enjoyed learning, so it should be an interesting challenge. Wish me luck!

We've started going over the Preach My Gospel lesson plans in Spanish, which has been made much easier since we memorized it in English first. There are some pretty cool ways that Spanish differs from English that make it very interesting to study. For example, in Spanish, there are two verbs that mean "to be". One of them is used for things that are permanent, and the other is for temporary things. So something like where you were born is permanent, whereas being sad is temporary. Well, as you read through some of the different lesson plans that talk about how Christ died for us, you can see that they use the temporary verb when they describe someone or something as 'dead'. It's a really cool parallel, because obviously we believe that death isn't forever, and the entire Spanish language agrees with that. Pretty awesome. Languages are so cool.

On Saturday, during my break between classes, Zach and I went on a bike ride down the Peñasquitos canyon, down to the waterfall. We spent about an hour and a half down there climbing around on boulders, and hanging out. It was super fun, we had a great time. 

On Sunday, I got to attend a friend's farewell talk. Jefferson Daynes, called to Costa Rica. He's been in the MTC for a week and a half, and it was awesome to be able to be there for his farewell. He gave a great talk about how excited he is to teach the gospel to people. It's definitely crazy to me seeing people close to my age who are also serving missions. Kinda makes me feel old. Oh well.

Today was a bit confusing, on account of daylight savings time not starting until April 4th in Mexico. But we got it all figured out, so my morning class doesn't start until 8:00, and my afternoon class until 3:30. It's definitely nice to have more time in the morning before class starts to get breakfast and shower and such. Definitely not the worst schedule change ever. 

Here's a scripture for thought: "Ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save." - 2 Nephi 31:19. I like this scripture because it reminds me who I need to rely on, and who has strengthened me in the past. I know that I will need His help a lot on my mission, and even more in the rest of my life. So I would encourage all of us to remember who to rely on when we are in need.

Hasta luego!

- Elder Blankenbiller

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

March 1, 2021

 ¡Hola todos!

It has been a crazy week and a half so far, which is why this email took so long. It took a while to get used to the MTC, but now that I'm kind of settled into the swing of things, I'll be a lot more consistent. 

At-home MTC has been pretty awesome so far. I've got an amazing district, and we have a great time studying together and trying to learn Spanish as fast as we can. Speaking of which, my Spanish has definitely grown way faster than I expected. My family might be getting a little annoyed by how much I use it around the house, but I've got to practice somehow, right? So far, most of my classes have been focused on learning the language, and going over sections of Preach My Gospel in order to become better teachers and missionaries. We've already had an opportunity to teach a lesson in Spanish to some members from Mexico! That was a really cool experience. I think my companion and I did well, even if it took us a while to make ourselves understood sometimes. It definitely made us realize how much more we need to learn before we'll be ready to actually teach people in the field. 

Also, big news from this past week! Through some miracle, the temple was allowed to open for live ordinances to be performed, so I was able to attend the temple last Wednesday. It was such a cool experience, and it was honestly made even more special because of the pandemic. My group and I had the whole temple to ourselves, and the temple president and his wife personally welcomed us to the temple. It was such a powerful spiritual experience to be in the temple with my family, as well as others that have helped me to grow and learn over the years. And now, being on the other side, I can definitely say that the ordinances performed in the temple are more sacred and holy than any experience I have had prior. I am so grateful that I was able to attend before leaving home for my mission. 

In conclusion, I'd like to share a quick spiritual thought. This week during my personal study, one of the chapters I read was Moroni 7. This chapter is so full of spiritual messages, but one that especially caught my eye was in verses 12 - 17. These verses talk about how we can know the difference between what is right and wrong. It's pretty simple, really. "That which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." And even better, we also have the gift of the Holy Ghost to be our constant companion, and help us to know the difference as well. "The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge". I love that we have that blessing of the Spirit, who can help us to discern truth, and know right from wrong. That is such a powerful promise, and one that we need more and more as the world continues to become more and more confusing. Keep the Holy Ghost with you always!

¡Hasta luego!

Elder Blankenbiller