April 21, 2023

This week has been fun. Started off sad cause my zone leaders left and they were awesome. I loved em so much but now they're gone forever. Never to be seen again. I'm proud of them though. They were such great examples for me to follow as the new zone leader. And I'm doing fantastic tbh. They couldn't have called a better person. I mean I've gone to exactly 2 meetings in the one week I've been called, but that's besides the point. 

Esta es me primera semana usar solo español 24/7. No manches. I can understand a good amount but it's the talking that really gets to me, I can't use the grammar in the ways I'd like to so its just a jumble of words in my head that I have to piece together in non correct ways. No se. 

Devotionals are always pretty classy, there's a lotta great messages, especially in this last one...cause we had a general authority come talk to us. Elder Palmer of the 70. Hes got a wicked accent, New Zealand I think - so cool. He talked a lot about missionary work, duh, but he talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how critical it is for our missionary work. 

So my favorite teacher ditched us for a new district a couple weeks ago, which sucked cause he's the goat. We see him every once in awhile when he's walking around campus, and every time I do, we bug him about churros. It's been three weeks since he left and he finally delivered with the churros last night. By the ATMs in an alleyway next the the gym. Shady but the best churros I've ever had. Ever. Hes a 5'5" Savior. The food here's rough and has been giving everyone stomach issues, so churros were a beautiful thing. 

The CCM has been good to me, the spiritual experiences keep rolling in, especially when there's so many devotionals with cool people. My testimony has grown so much and I know for a fact it will continue like that for my mission as long as I put in my piece. I miss all you guys, but I'm glad in here doing the Lord's work. I know he will provide for me, because he loves each of us eternally. A mi me amo mi padre en Cielo, y Su hijo JesuCristo. JesuCristo es nuestro redentor, Él muerte por nosotros pecados, entonces, podemos vivir con Dios en Cielo. En el nombre de JesuCristo, amen. 

Nos vemos,
Elder Blankenbiller 

April 14, 2023

I had chilequiles in the CCM fo breakfast. I don't have a picture, but they're so so good. Trust me on that. Anyways this last week has been pretty good to me. Food's mid almost 80% of the time, but that 20% makes up the difference. Sometimes. 

On Tuesday, our house exploded. Not literally but a water pipe did burst. We weren't there when it happened but someone in our house said they heard water in our room but couldn't get in. So I sprinted back home, hoping I could get there in time and did. Luckily none of the water had gotten to the electronics or our clothes, but it was full of hot steam. You could barely see from one side of the room to the other. Pretty slick. But I was the hero of the day and heroically shut off the water. (I turned a valve till it shut off. My 8 year old brother could've done it.) It was slightly more than warm so it hurt a bit. Not so bad though. Plus we got to skip out on a bit of class.

The other big thing of the week is that I got called as a zone leader. Unfortunately our ZLs are leaving on Monday which is sad cause they are so fun. It's wild to think that I'll be gone from the CCM in just 2 weeks, just like where they were at when I first got here. I hope el don de linguas kicks in soon. We've been praying about it for weeks but...nunca. Yet. 

We got to go to the Mexico City temple for pday today! It's such a gorgeous temple. I love the interior decorating; it's beautiful. This was only the third time I've done an endowment but it was the second most spiritual. Right after my own. Something about hearing it in my mission language is so great. The prayers in Spanish amplify the whole experience. I didn't get any pictures cause we were rushing around this time. Too many groups came, but I'll include some in my email next week.

It's fun to leave the walls. Cause we get an opportunity to see the outside world instead of just hear it. And it's weird. First time really experiencing the shock of a third world country. The plus side though is that I'm really tall in Mexico. 6 ft here is like 7 ft in the US. I'm all for it. 

No pictures this week, I'll make up for it next email.

Elder Blankenbiller

From his mom: One of his teachers sent me pictures from his birthday this week. So I am adding them here. :)

April 10, 2023

My first week in Mexico has already sped by. Kinda wild if I'm being honest. I swear I just got called last week, up in Utah. Its a bit surreal but its been such a great experience. Even the plane ride was interesting. A bit stinky due to a sweaty Hispanic couple I was next to. But then the flight attendant said I could move to a row of my own...pretty slick. 

When I finally got to Mexico I met my district for the first time, I didn't know anyone on my flight, there were a few elders though. But back to the part about meeting my district. 90% of them looked nothing like I expected, the height difference between me and my companion was way different. I'm a solid 5 inches taller then my comp. Thats a lot. But anyway it was cool finally getting to meet them after only seeing em on zoom for weeks. 

Driving through the city was so fun, and when we finally got to the CCM it was weird. We drove through some gates and I haven't left since. It's like college...but only 90 acres to wander. Its a gorgeous campus though, there are some trees called Jacarandas and they're beautiful. Ill put a picture below. 

Another plus is how nice everyone is! Everyone knows that your first week will be hard to adjust because its a lotta rushing around and not a whole lotta down time. But its so good. Easter Sunday was by far the best day. It was so spiritual the entirety of the day. The previous day at lunch, the whole CCM started a 24 hour fast. And it was worth every second. I couldn't feel my hunger as I normally would during a fast, because church was that good. We had a testimony meeting in church and that was amazing. We also had plenty of free time for personal study, district council, and studying a specified topic and discussing it as a district. 

The Easter devotional was phenomenal. It couldn't have been a better end to the day. From start to finish the spirit was so strong in that room. A couple missionaries shared their testimonies followed by the president and his wife. The Easter videos and musical numbers were lovely. But the most spiritual part of the entire thing was the hymns at the end. There were a lotta districts leaving that day, so we all sang, "God be with you till we meet again". After that song the final week missionaries were in tears, the hermanas were saying bye to their elders, and all the elders stayed seated while the hermanas left. 

Now for the good stuff, once the hermanas filed out, the president told all the elders to stand and to sing himno numero dos...El Espirity de Dios. Fire. So much intensity. It was the perfect end to the night. 

Thats where ill leave off for this time, I'll add more later but for now I've got things to do and places to be. Nos vemos. 

Also there was a fire 👍

Elder Blankebiller