Dear Friends and Family,
Well, I finally made it! I can't believe it. This place is so cool.
To start off, it is so humid here. I feel like a frog. It's so intense.
I love it though! The air is very thick with moisture. It's like taking
a drink with every breath. My clothes are pretty soggy most of the
time. Also, the plane flights were very nice. Both of them were
reasonably on time and we were able to transition really well. I didn't
realize how long that flight from LAX to Taipei was, until I looked at
the clock and found out that it had only been 8 hours and I still had so
many to go. What a long flight. But it was a very nice flight. The
plane was huge! I've never had such a smooth flight. We landed around
9:00 local time and met up with our Mission President. President Bishop
is so cool! We had a 2 hour drive to the mission home from the airport,
so we got to know him and his wife a bit; as well as the assistants. He
gave us a brief of what is expected on the mission. I'll be honest, I
had never been so scared in my life. There is so much to do! We didn't
get in to our apartment until after 12:30. We stayed with the zone
leaders in Taichung. By the way, it's actually Taizhong. It drives me
crazy to call it Taichung now.
We were awakened really fast with a hardcore run through the city
to a stadium to run some more. It was so hard to keep up with the zone
leaders. In the end, we had run about 2.5 miles by 7:00 am. I'm glad I'm
used to getting up early now. We ate breakfast at the mission home and
President Bishop gave us some more training. He is so smart and
knowledgeable. And he's super nice. We had training most of the day. We
also got to go to a hot pot for lunch. I love those so much. And dinner
we went to one of those places with a huge spinning table on a bigger
table. (I have no idea how to describe it). I'm definitely going to have
to get used to fish here. We were surprised with something afterwards.
Dan Jones night. We all got to go this night market and stand on a box
just like Dan Jones and preach the gospel. We just did our testimonies,
then a missionary would take us individually and do street contacting.
It was intense. It was pouring rain and we just went around and looked
for referrals and people interested in the gospel. I enjoyed it quite a
lot, even though I couldn't understand much!
The next morning was pretty much the same routine. Then we went
into the church and were greeted by all the trainers. One of them
welcomed us and sat with us. But we didn't know if they were our trainer
or not. After a few more lessons by the assistants and the mission
president and his wife, we watched a pretty intense inspirational video
that got me so pumped. I was still scared out of my mind though. Finally
it was time to find out who our trainer is. We did it in a traditional
Chinese way with the red envelopes. I was first. I opened it up and read
"Elder Allen, Nantou." So crazy! I honestly can't explain the huge
amount of comfort I felt as I saw him come up to greet me. I could
really feel the spirit's comfort that he will be an amazing trainer for
me. It feels so great. So we all went out to eat one last time, grabbed
our stuff, and headed off to our respective areas.
Nantou is more in the center of the island. It's not as populated
and is so beautiful! We had an hour bus ride here, so we were able to
get to know each other a bit. He's actually from Alpine, Utah. And he
graduated the same year I did. Pretty cool if you ask me! We share an
apartment with the zone leaders for our area, which is pretty rare. Most
companionships live by themselves. Another rare thing is we have 6
missionaries in our ward. Us, the zone leaders, and a companionship of
sisters. I love it!
We went out and did some street contacting almost right as we got
back. That's jumping in. I couldn't understand a thing. We were able to
go to a few houses and talk to some families. By the end of the night, I
was completely terrified that I wasn't going to learn the language.
I'm so glad for planning and goals. If it wasn't for those,
everything would be so much harder. We'd be all over the place. We had
some meetings on Saturday and I was able to meet the ward mission
leader. Really nice guy. Everyone here is so nice! Then we did some
tracting. I can't wait to be able to talk to people more. The people we
got to talk to were really hospitable.
I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to have two baptisms in
my ward on my second day! A 14 year old boy and an 8 year old girl
whose family are already members. All the missionaries planned to sing a
special musical number at the baptism, so we met a few minutes early to
go over it. Oh by the way, our zone leaders names are Elder Petters and
Elder Gulas. Elder Petters' time is up and he is going home
today. Elder Petters was going to be doing the baptizing, when he
suddenly walked in and said, "ELDER BUCKWALTER, WOULD YOU LIKE TO
BAPTIZE TONIGHT?" Total shock came over me. This is his last chance to
baptize and he gave it to me as a welcoming experience. He has such a
soft soul. Such a nice guy. But then it sat in that I had to memorize
the baptizmal prayer in chinese! So it's 5 minutes before the service
starts and I'm scrambling to put on Elder Petters' clothes while trying
to memorize the prayer. And as far as everyone has said, I did a very
good job. The two kids are so lucky to be baptized into this true
church. What an experience! I asked the boy how he felt afterwards and
he said great! So great.
There was a ward fireside immediately afterwards. So I was able to
meet a lot of the ward. I absolutely love this ward! Everyone is so nice
(and patient with my chinese). They're all so willing to work with us
to help us teach investigators. I also love the spirit felt around them.
It's so strong and loving.
Sunday we had church in the morning. It was so nice. I'm really
starting to more experience the blessings and spiritual blessings of
church. I can't understand much of what everyone is saying, but the
spirit speaks every language and I could feel it. We call Sunday "game
day" because getting investigators to church is a huge step for their
conversion process. It's such a blessing to go to church.
All of us missionaries had dinner at a recent converts house last
night and we brought one of our investigators. He's very curious about
the Holy Ghost. It was so much fun. We also met with an investigating
family at the end of the night. They're so golden. I can't wait to see
them progress more.
Today we said our goodbyes to Elder Petters and he left. Today is
more for getting me settled in and ready to get into the daily schedule.
I love my bike! We're about to go buy accessories for it.
Ok so now here's the info for everyone back home. No matter where
I'm transfered to, my mailing address stays the same. It goes to the
mission office first. So always use that address. Also, use the US
postal service. They don't accept Fedex here. Very crutial. And it
shouldn't cost that much when you use the flat rate boxes. And this time
is about when we'll be doing emails every Monday. Just a heads up.
I absolutely love it here. It's so much fun. Still a lot of hard
work trying to learn and learn how to teach. But it's so much fun as
well. I can't wait for this coming week. We have some great lessons
coming up. I'm so excited. I'm sorry for how long this is! I just had so
much to say for my first week. I'll try better next week. I love you
all! Please continue to write me. Every missionary loves mail. I can't
wait to hear back from all of you! Remember, the Lord loves each and
every one of us. This is His true gospel.
Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter
Here are some pictures. They are not in order. Some are just before he left the MTC and some are his first week in Taiwan
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