Week six

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow a whole lot has happened since my last email. To start off, my schedule is completely different now. They pretty much changed everyone's schedule. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It has only been in effect for two days. Classes have changed, gym time has been changed. And pretty much my entire P-Day has been changed. I don't have early morning Temple. That is something I don't really like. I absolutely loved going so early in the morning. What a way to start out the day! Now it's in the afternoon. Which is still great. I'm just so glad my Temple Tuesday can still live on even while I'm at the MTC. I love it. I had the great blessing to see my great friend Brother David Meyers today as he is preparing for his mission. What are the odds of that?! I thought that was so cool. My advice is to make going to the temple a monthly thing, if not a weekly thing. I absolutely love it there.

So last Tuesday night after devotional, Brother Johnson, first councilor of my branch presidency, presided over our district meeting. And upon him speaking a little bit, I found out that he has a nephew serving in Salta, Argentina. That sparked my curiosity. Turns out that my first councilor is brothers to Brother Johnson in our home ward! That was a huge shock. We talked for a bit afterwards, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I knew this before. Like Sister Johnson had told me before I left on my mission. So weird. I don't know. But that was an interesting connection. Connections everywhere!

Yesterday the field finally opened. I'm so glad! The gym was pretty fun, but that big open field has room for so much more. I love the gym time we have here. A few weeks ago, I had a friend from high school come up to me and say he has a shirt for me for gym time. I don't know who started it, but over 20 missionaries that have graduated from Orem High have worn this shirt and signed it. And it can't be washed. Pretty gross right? So I wore it yesterday while I was at the field and got it ready for the next Orem High graduate!

I'm so excited for tomorrow! We have all our new missionaries coming in! We were supposed to get 6 last week, but no one, not even our branch presidency, knows where they went. So hopefully they show up. Other than that, we're getting 25 new missionaries! So exciting. That more than doubles our branch. I can't wait! That'll be one of those looking back moments of how I first was when I got here. I can't wait to help them out and get them going as well. I only have 3 weeks left here after all. That's even weirder. Hard to believe it's already been 6 full weeks. Starting my 7th tomorrow!

I've now gotten to the point where it's no longer cramming Chinese into my head and it's just learn as I go. I can speak pretty well and can pick things up really fast. It's just getting the rhythm and sentence layout more stabilized. I find that quite cool. I still have a hard time speaking straight off the top of my head. It still takes a second to work it in my mind. But I can understand very well. I thought back to the first day and how doomed I thought I was. That is clearly not the case. The spirit really helps direct our learning here. I absolutely love it.

The Branch President randomly told me he wanted to talk to me on Sunday. It was one of those moments when it felt almost a little too random. When I got in there, he said he's calling me to be the new District Leader! What?! So now I'm District Leader over 39G. That's so exciting! I'm so grateful for my calling. I love serving my district and my branch. I honestly love my branch. We're so together and dedicated to helping each other learn and grow.

Elder Plate and I have been working really hard on making our lessons flow more smoothly by working on our switching back and forth. It's really improving so much. Just from last Thursday to now, I can see and feel the large difference during our lessons. There isn't that little choppiness between thoughts like there was before. That is something I think is important in teaching a lesson. You can see the confusion on the investigator's face when the topic just randomly changes and they can soon lose interest. So I'm very grateful we're working on this.

Well I love you all! Thanks for all the letters and support. Thank you for all the prayers. I can truly feel the blessings here. I can't wait to hear from you all and write you again and tell you about this week's adventures. The Lord loves each and every one of us. Never forget it!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Week Five

Dear friends and family,

This has probably been the hardest weeks here at the MTC. And I'll tell you why! I explained in my last email that my throat was feeling gross. It didn't get better. I decided to go on vocal rest for a day to see if that would help. Once I decided to talk again, I was really suffering. When your voice is dying and squeaks all over the place, it's pretty much impossible to speak chinese with all the tones. By Thursday night, my voice left me almost completely. It became almost impossible to teach. I had to depend a lot on Elder Plate to teach. The only thing I could do was help him with a word if he forgot how to say it. It was really hard. And I volunteered to give a prayer the following Sunday in Sacrament meeting. Once I hit Saturday and still didn't have a voice, I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to say a prayer out loud. Sunday came around and I still didn't have much of a voice. I decided just to not talk until it was time. During the opening hymn, I sang a little bit to get my voice going. Then when it came time for the prayer, I could speak clearly! It was great. Within an hour, my voice was gone again. What a blessing that was to get my voice back, even for the smallest amount of time.

Since then, I've been to the clinic again and they've given me some kind of liquid that tastes 20 times worse than nyquil. It actually makes me cough like a mad man. But after about 5 minutes or so, my voice feels a lot better. We just got back from the temple. It was so great! I love being able to sit and pray and ponder at the temple. I also saw Mrs. Johnson (3rd grade teacher). I'm glad I'm good with remembering faces!

At the Sunday evening fireside, we had an amazing musical number by Elder Archuleta. He sang "The Spirit of God." It was absolutely amazing. He's now in Chile, I believe. The speaker was Elder M. Russell Ballard. He gave an amazing talk on perfection as a missionary and how it is impossible. Only one missionary was perfect and it was Christ. We just need to strive to be perfect by doing our best. I loved his talk. Following his talk, we were instructed on a different version of "Called to Serve." I think Sister Nally called it the "MTC Medley." It was so awesome! She said we're just short of 2000 missionaries at the MTC and we're going to sing it as though we are the 2000 stripling warriors marching off to battle. It was intense as it built up. And my voice came back for that as well! What are the odds?

On a less spiritual note, we've found mice on our floor in our residence hall. An Elder saw one bolt into his room right as he opened the door to walk out. So we have to keep our stuff closed and secure so they don't eat any of our stuff.

Now that my voice is coming back, Elder Terry and I are working on our song that we'll be singing on Sunday. I'm so excited. We'll have 6 new missionaries in our branch tomorrow. There was a mix up on the entry dates of all the new missionaries. The ones that will be coming in tomorrow have lived somewhere chinese speaking and already speak chinese fluently. Some of them don't speak much english. They'll be coming here to learn more of the gospel words and lessons. It'll be interesting welcoming new people that already can speak so well! We'll have to pick up the pace if we even want to talk to them. I'm so excited though. And I believe next week we'll have another 25 new missionaries coming in. It's so weird knowing I'm over halfway through the MTC. Actually, we fly out for Taiwan a month from today. That's so weird!

Well my time is just about up. I love you all! I pray for all of you daily. The church is true. I love that I'm out here serving the Lord. I can't wait to get out and serve everyone in Taiwan. Please remember to write me and keep in touch!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Easter Week!

Dear friends and family,

Wow the weeks are going by fast! I can't believe my stay in the MTC is already half over. Kinda. Looking back, a lot has happened. But still not a ton. It's so weird. Chinese is finally sticking in my brain. My flashcards are now up to 400. I can't believe people can learn this language so fast! We're definitely being helped by the spirit. I love it here!

For all you Buckwalters out there, I have a new name for us. Well for me. "The Swishbuckler!" Cheesy, I know. But I guess I've developed a talent for basketball since arriving here. We started up speed, or as they call it knockout, and I swish all my shots. It's pretty intense. One of the elders in my zone, Elder Barron, and I go head to head on that game. It's so fun! I also love using my running shoes! Thanks mom and dad! My legs are jello after every gym time. They told us that the field will probably open up next week, so I'm way excited to go out there and play around.

I absolutely love getting packages. But sadly, my love of sweets has died. So much sugar. I can't eat any more candy. Mom, that Easter package that you sent is probably going to be the one that sends me into a coma. Even though I love that caramel bunny. Ooh caramel... Speaking of Easter, Easter here was so amazing! We had a combined sacrament meeting with the entire MTC. We heard that someone high up was coming to speak to us, so we got our seats an hour and a half in advance. It was president Packer! That was so cool. I've never been a part of such a big sacrament. He spoke on the Atonement and missionary work. One thing that stood out to me was "fear is the opposite of faith". Always have faith in the Lord, and do not fear. That just reminds me of my missionary scripture D&C 68:6. That helps me so much. We also got to hold our first testimony meeting as a branch since arriving here. There are now only 20 missionaries in my branch. The last of the older generation left early this morning for New York. I thought it to be a huge blessing to hear him bear his testimony one last time before leaving the MTC. Some of the things he said I couldn't understand, but I could definitely feel the spirit and knew he knew it to be true.

There has been a "mass pandemic" of the flu here. I think it's so funny how crazy they are about it. I think maybe 5 people have it. I thought I was catching it as well and went to the clinic yesterday to check. They ruled out the flu and thought maybe strep. But that was negative. So they think I just have a bad virus that's making me cough like a mad man. It hurts. And I sound like a Tuscan Raider.

This morning we went to the temple and did inititories. I love going to the temple so early in the morning. What a way to start the day! And since we love the breakfast there and the cafeteria doesn't open until 8, we just keep doing work until it's time. I think that makes our food taste even better, you know? One of the workers asked me if I know a Morris Buckwalter. Then I saw Eric Sacket and Brother Hansen! And THEN another worker said he grew up with grandma Buckwalter. What are the odds? I didn't catch either of the worker's names, but once again, everywhere I go: connections.

Elder Terry (in my district) and I love to sing. Between us and the sisters, we cover all the parts when we sing hymns. So the head of the music committee asked us if him and I would sing a duet in Sacrament meeting. How cool is that?! I never thought I'd be the one to do that. But here, I'm just loving it. Never turn down an opportunity to bear your testimony.

We also got to teach at the TRC for the first time last week. It was pretty intense! I loved it though. It was a little weird since I knew one of the volunteers. But Elder Plate and I teach so well together and we could feel the spirit during the lessons. Also, we've challenged both of our investigators to be baptized and have a date set for one! Woo! You can really see their development of faith in Jesus Christ. And that's what we're trying to do.

Well I love you all! Keep writing me and keeping me updated on your lives. I try to get some more personal written letters sent out each week, but I only have so much time on my P-Days. The church is true. I know that with all my heart.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Week Three

Dear loved ones,

This has been quite a week! Lots of teaching and learning, loss of sleep, and food beyond belief. I'm so excited everyday! We've continued teaching our two investigators. It's such a blast of reality when they tell of all their trials. Yesterday as we were coaching one of them through prayer, she had such a desire for God to help her feel peace and happiness. As she was praying, she specifically told Heavenly Father that it was her speaking to Him and she hopes He can hear her. I just about lost it with tears. I thought back to the primary song that asks "Heavenly Father, are you really there?" and could see that she has this real hope and desire to know if He is listening.

Shortly after, we had a workshop on teaching investigators the importance of prayer. During a role play (we do a lot of those here) I was an investigator and the missionaries helped me through the process of prayer. As I said a simple prayer like an investigator, I really felt that desire to know that He is there. I mean, I'm acting as an investigator and I'm just on my knees praying for Him to watch over my family. How simple (yet so powerful) can that be? I absolutely love the things I'm learning here so that I can teach others how they can feel that way for themselves. The one hard thing about it is that we role play in english. Translating that into chinese during a lesson is pretty difficult, BUT possible. I have this keychain of words that I work on. It's quite a big keychain. Kinda like mom's old key ring that could fit around your wrist. I'm up to almost 300 words, plus the words I've already learned in school. So I'm on a roll! My goal is to add around 100 each week. I know, that sounds hard. But I haven't failed yet!

So for the past few gym times, Elder Terry (one of my roomates) and I do pilates with a few of the sisters. I had no idea how painful it was! They're instructing us to rotate our legs like this and balence our bodies like this and I'm just sitting there thinking a guys body can't do that! But we enjoy it so much! We're actually going as a district after this email to become the healthiest district! So Aunt Cat, you have a partner to go with when I get back and you're in Utah.

I don't know if any of you saw me, but I sang in General Conference! Oh wow that was such a blast! Having to wake up an hour earlier each day was rough, but so worth it. Walking up onto the stand where they sing was so cool. I can see why the General Authorities enjoy looking over the congregation so much. And it sounds so amazing up there. That organ can bust a tune. And it was just so nice to leave the MTC gates! Also, you might have seen Elder David Archuleta singing up there as well. Yes he is here. I feel so bad for the guy. He was stormed on the first day and people don't leave him alone. When he found out he was zoomed in on, he was so embarrassed. I've talked to him. He's a really nice guy and a great missionary.

One thing I love doing here is going on the temple walk on Sundays. We get to walk around the temple for an hour and take pictures with each other. It's so relaxing and fun. Because of choir practice, my companion and I haven't been able to on the temple walk, but we were able to this last time. And I'm so glad! Today all the older generation chinese missionaries left. I'm going to miss them so much. Even though I'll see a lot of them in 7 weeks. They're all going to be great missionaries.

Since they're all gone, they left behind a bunch of stuff that they didn't need to talk with them. One of them, Elder Long, left his analog clock with the two bell thingys that are insanely loud for an alarm. I took it... :) This morning we had to wake up at 5:00 to go to the temple. My regular alarm didn't wake any of my roommates up, so once I was ready to go take a shower, I turned the loud bell alarm and ran out of the room! So funny!

I'm so excited for this next week. I can't wait for this Easter Sunday! I heard something special is going to happen. We're having a combined Sacrament meeting with the entire MTC. Surprises! Anyway, send me a letter and let me know what you've been doing, as well as your favorite conference talk. Happy Easter! Remember the Lord loves each and every one of us!

 

Love, Elder Buckwalter

 

ps. For Bishop Pugmire, Elder Quentin L. Cook looks just like you from behind! I thought that was cool.

Conference Missionary Choir Photos