July 26, 2022

 Aaaand we'e back! (Though, you were probably expecting that, weren't you?) 

Lots of interesting happenings this week. I became a temporary AP/Secretary, we got lost in a flower market, and we made Italian food to celebrate someone's first anniversary as a member. Confused yet? Let me explain:

Wednesday morning is the usual day for our Mission Devotional. However, we had other plans, we were going to go with our ward's primary president to visit some less active members, with the intent to be back in time for a second meeting with the Facebook team. So we missed the Devotional (which will become relevant in a moment) and went to find a whole bunch of people.The last person we visited happened to be at her little creamery in a massive market. And I mean massive. We probably spent a good fifteen minutes just trying to find her, and we hadn't even left the first big warehouse. We eventually found her, and then after chatting for a bit, tried to make our way back out. And promptly got lost in the middle of the half of the market dedicated to selling flowers. Smelled great. Not very good for navigating. So we missed both of those meetings. :P

And missing those meetings became very relevant the very next day. Tuesday night, we had been told that the District Leader Council would be held at the temple on Thursday. So we arrived, bright and early, to find exactly nobody in the building where they had told us to meet. Confused, we went to the mission offices, and found the Assistants and Secretaries in quite the scramble. Apparently (and we would have known this had we attended the devotional on Wednesday), the mission was on pause until we got all of the records for recent converts sorted. And so my companion and I just sort of got roped into things, and ended up working with the elders there in the office for quite a bit. Good times.

And the last story for the week, on Sunday, one of the newer members hit her first anniversary as a member of the church! To celebrate, we threw a bit of a lunch party, and my companion whipped out a recipe for Lemon Picada, which was delicous. It was a pretty fun Sunday. 

I think that's about all I have the patience to write, writing on the phone is painful. :P Hope you're all doing great!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Photos:

- Ward Lunch Party

- The Gray Pants Gang

- A sampling of Mercado Jamaica

- Elmo

July 19, 2022

Hi again everybody! 

It's been quite the week! We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders, interviews with the new Mission President, and a whole lot of confusion after an entire subway line was shut down for renovation. But let's just get right into it! 

So, last Wednesday, we had companion exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Which is a rather normal occurrence. What made this time distinct was the fact that Elder Rosas was the one who came with me to my area. For context, he served in this area a while ago... for nine months. So he's something of a celebrity here. Made things pretty straightforward to be honest. XD It was a good time. 

On Friday, we did a loop around our entire Zone (because of the closed subway line, which I'll mention in a second) in order to drop off a Book of Mormon and make it to our interviews in the stake center. Where we finally met our new Mission President! He's a pretty fun guy. He and his wife are both doctors (and he has the handwriting to prove it ;), and they're from Utah. They also brought along their two youngest daughters, so a bit of a change from our last president. But yeah. Cool guy. Should be a good time. 

And lastly, the subway line. So. This one subway line was sort of the linchpin of our ability to travel anywhere in the Zone. Now that it's down... we have to take the long way around. And it's a *very* long way around. So that's been a hassle. But it does mean we get to see more of the city, which I'll never complain about. This is the only part in the entire mission that gives you an inkling of why México City is actually a tourist destination. :P 

Anyway, that's all from me. Go enjoy your week! 

- Elder Blankenbiller 

Photos:
- Chocolate from Oaxaca
- Ward Primary Night
- An interesting time 

July 12, 2022

Alright everybody, gonna be a quick one this week, we've got a couple lessons cutting into P-Day, so I don't actually have a ton of time. Either way, here's some of the going-ons from this last week:

We have a whole lot more people in our teaching pool here in this area. So we've got a lot more to do in a day, but the exact same amount of time as always. Makes for some pretty fast-paced days. We've currently got two people who are preparing to be baptized, although one of them might take a bit longer, on account of him wanting to be baptized in Mexican Independence month (September, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Mexican holidays). 

We've also got a whole lot of inactive members to visit, the ward is absolutely enormous. Hopefully we can help people start coming back to church, and getting the ward members who are already very active to help us go looking. We did have ward conference on Sunday, and the stake president spoke to the ward about reactivation and helping people come back to the covenant path. Fingers crossed they were paying attention. :P 

Either way, it's been a good week. We've eaten an unhealthy amount of tacos, ridden the subway and bus more times than I can count, and I'm still very lost. This is, funny enough, a very large area in a very large city. But it's fun, so no complaints from me. Hope you're all having a great week!

- Elder Blankenbiller 

P.S. For those of you who want a spiritual thought, I highly recommend you go watch the broadcast they did recently about sharing the gospel. (They asked us missionaries to watch it, and I liked it. So here you go:  https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/share/2022-leadership-broadcast/area/utah?lang=eng )

Photo:

- My new companion and I getting churros 

July 5, 2022

Soooooo lots of new news. I'm in a new area, we've got a new mission president... It's a bit chaotic, to be sure. But hey, that's what we live for as missionaries, isn't it? So, President Staker arrived on Wednesday, and President Parry went home the next morning. We're officially under the jurisdiction of an entirely new person. We had a small devotional over Zoom as a mission to get to know him a bit better, but I still haven't actually met him, so I'll let you know whenever that actually happens.

As for transfer stuff, I got sent right back to the same stake I left three months ago. In a different ward, but all the same. Should be quite the cycle. My new area is in the bottom left corner of the mission, right in the middle of the city. So we've got delightful things like the Historic Center of the city, a massive street market that we're not allowed to enter, all that fun stuff. Plus, lots of public transportation, so if I don't feel like walking, I no longer have to. ;)

And to wrap things up, let's go with a spiritual thought! I was reading a talk from the last general conference, titled "Conversion is our Goal". It shares a title with one of the sections in the introduction of Come Follow Me. And I really liked the emphasis placed on the necessity of the Holy Ghost in the conversion process, not just for people who are learning about the church for the first time, but also for all of us who have been members for a long time. There's always more we can learn! So yeah, I liked that part. 

- Elder Blankenbiller 

Photos:

- Out with the old, in with the new

June 28, 2022

 Hey guys!

Lots happened this week, but I've been sick for the last three days, so forgive the shorter email. :P

We had a Zone Conference with the entire mission last week, since our mission President is going home... the day after tomorrow. So that's pretty crazy. We'll have to wait and see what happens with the new one. But the Conference was pretty awesome. Sort of like the end of the Book of Mormon, when Moroni is trying to cram in everything else he thinks would be important for us to know, we got a lot of great messages from President and Hermana Parry. Very sad to see them go.

Other than that, and the rainy season making its presence known (both with lots of thunder, and by making me sick :P), I've not got lots else to say. Hope you all are having a great week! And sorry for the shorter email. 

- Elder Blankenbiller 

- Obligatorio temple picture after Zone Conference 

- We definitely didn't ride motorcycles on exchanges

- The Zone

- President & Hermana Parry's farewell hymn: Para Siempre Dios Esté con Vos (God be with you til we meet again) 

June 21, 2022

Alright everyone. Lots to talk about from this week. Some good times, and a really, really low low. First of all, an elder in my mission, Elder LaMadrid, had a fatal bicycle accident last week. It hit us all pretty hard, as I'm sure you might imagine. We had a small devotional as a mission on Saturday to go over what happened, and also to offer help to anybody who needed it. We also were invited to attend the funeral over Zoom on Sunday. Overall, pretty much one of the worst possible things that can happen out here on the mission. Please include his family in your prayers.

The rest of the week, however, went pretty well! We got to go help some people put up roofing in their houses, because we're going into the rainy season here, and a flooded house is definitely not a thing you want to have. We also had the opportunity to go to the temple today, from which I'll be taking my inspiration for this week's spiritual thought:

So, in Spanish, Endowment is Investidura. From which, we can take the English: Invest. And, of course, when we are investing in something, we can expect it to grow when certain conditions are fulfilled. For example, when you invest in starting a business, there are a wide array of things that you can do to improve and help that investment to grow. Same concept here, as we obey and keep the covenants we have made, we will continue to see an increase in blessings, a higher return on our investment. I thought that was kinda cool. 

Anyway, that's all from me! See you around!

- Elder Blankenbiller

Photos:

- Pomegranate Tea an Hermana bought us the other morning 

- Elder LaMadrid (Last reminder, please pray for his family <3)

- Some cool art

- More of the same cool art, but this time with service buddies

- Temple Trip!

- Brownies and Mexican Hot Chocolate to kick off the rainy season 

June 14, 2022

Alrighty, here we go again! 

Another week in Mexico, and I'm again left questioning my sanity. Maybe it just comes with learning a language, but I swear they keep inventing new words that I've never heard before in my life. And as soon as I figure out what it means, suddenly, everyone is saying it. Maybe I'm just going crazy, though. That's what happens when you eat too many tacos.

Speaking of, I'm a big fan of the tacos. Quite the variety, too. They've got suadero, longaniza, cabeza, ojo, lengua, carnitas, and anything else you could imagine. The trick is finding the right spot to get them, but once you've found one, it's just non-stop goodness. Until you run out of money, of course. :P 

Other things: This last week, we had interviews with the Mission President, which was a little sad, since they were his last. He's leaving this cycle, and we'll be getting our new President in two weeks or so. Gonna be pretty crazy. Anyway. That's all from me, I've got to go do very important things now. (We're definitely not getting more tacos :P)

See you all around!

- Elder Blankenbiller 

Photo:

- The last interviews with President