If I'm being honest I have no clue what I did during this week. I have stories about random things, but i could not tell you the day they happened.
I'll start off with one thing I know for a fact I did this week - I went to the temple with a recent convert, my man Jesus was in the font baptizing anybody and everybody. He doesn't speak any English tho, and all of the names were in English. Did I understand any of the names? No. But God inderstood the intent and that's all that matters. Jesus is the best. Both of em. This was also my first time going to the Seattle temple cause I got flown in very late on my flight over here, and the AP's didn't wanna go 20 minutes outta their way to have me see the temple at 9 at night.
Also we had interviews this week with the president, and he's seriously the nicest guy. During my interview, we just talked about anything. We even talked about the fact that literally everyone jn my mission is becoming lactose intolerant because of this one ice cream shop called Edeleens. I'm not kidding when I tell you almost 40 missionaries have become lactose intolerant during their missions. So basically, I am never eating there.
Oh yeh and then I also had my first bash! Super fun. So there was this guy living in a trailer park that we hadn't visited for a while and we decided to stop by. But when we knocked, nobody answered. Instead this 5'6" 300lb Mexican strolls around the corner, immediately tells us he's from New York City, and proceeds to tell us how our church is only in it for the money, that's why the pope drives such a nice car. Makes sense right? And then he proceeds to make the most profound analogy I've ever heard about churches. He says, quote; “Imagine you've got a mom, but she's an ugly mom, and all the other moms out there are WAY hotter than your mom, obviously you'd wanna switch right? Cause otherwise you'd be embarrassed by how ugly your mom is. So you switch. And that's just like all churches." Close quote. It's way funnier in Spanish too, cause it makes even less sense. I was trying so hard not to laugh at this guy. He ended his rant sweating like crazy, and he then awkwardly waddled back to his to his truck to hibernate till the next missionaries came by.
I just would like to end this by sharing something from my scripture studies this week. I've been rereading the Book of Mormon in both languages because it's been a while since I have fully done so. And I've been in Enos, and in this book, faith is the most powerful theme in the whole book. It's a very short one, but one of the best, just because of how faithful in God and Christ Enos was. Faith is something that's been coming up a lot recently, especially in my life as a missionary, when I see small miracles all around me. Sometimes it's just having the faith that someone will answer the door, or faith to know that what we do that day isn't up to us, it's whatever the spirit needs us for. Having that faith trumps any other need as a missionary. Without faith we'd be lost. Have faith, it works. En el nombre de nuestro salvador, JesuCristo, amen.
Adelante con fe,
Elder Blankenbiller
1. Jesus y temple
2. Jesus y temple again
3. Elote con Liliana
4. Sunset over farmland
5. Comps birthday cake (1 of 4)
