Dear Family and Friends,
Well for those of you who
haven't heard yet, I'm taking off today! In two hours actually... All
the Taichung missionaries were supposed to leave on Thursday. During
class yesterday we were called to the travel office and they said we
were leaving now in 16 hours. What?! Needless to say, we had to cancel
the rest of our classes and start doing laundry and pack. None of us
were packed at all. It was a crazy night last night. But now we're all
packed. We leave at 8:00 this morning and we take off for LAX around
11:00. From there we have a 3 hour layover until we fly straight to
Taiwan. We're scheduled to get there tomorrow night at 8:30. And even
with the international date line and the time zone changes, that's a
long flight! I'm so excited! I can't believe how fast the time has flown
already.
Last Tuesday night Elder Christofferson spoke at our Devotional.
That's the 5th Apostle since arriving at the MTC. A record maybe? Yeah I
think so. It was so cool. He spoke on the relationship of the Godhead
and how they are different but support each other entirely. It was
really good! He had a different approach to his talk as well. He asked
for a lot of missionary feedback and had a few missionaries with
microphones running around to those who wanted to read a scripture. It
was pretty cool. It was so funny to see the nervousness in a few of them
when he asked a follow-up question. I think the one thing that I loved
the most about his talk is that it was entirely based out of the
scriptures. He would have someone read a passage and then he'd talk
about it and expound on it. It really showed the deeper meaning of the
scriptures. Through studying, not just reading, you can learn so much.
Also as a surprise this past week, we were informed that we were
going to be interviewed by NPR. My class was chosen to be interviewed.
So a lady from NPR came and recorded us in our regular learning session.
Then she said she wanted to interview a few people. The head of
communications at the MTC had previously chosen a few sisters in my
district. So they went off to be interviewd. When they came back, the
lady said she wanted to interview Elder Plate and I. Gulp! So we went
into another classroom and the head of communications at the MTC as well
as the head of communications for the Church were there. Yeah you could
say I was a little nervous. But once the lady left, he told us all that
we did an amazing job. What a cool opportunity!
Friday was in field orientation. A lot of classes to prepare us for
the field. And one thing that I really loved was learning to work with
the members. Something that was really stressed was "every member a
missionary." I absolutely loved that. They said the most baptisms come
through member relations. Meaning, when you work with the members, more
people feel welcome to come to church and take more discussions. Members
friendshipping others is so critical. I challenge everyone to search
for a fellowshipping opportunity. Charity is the pure love of Christ.
Show more love towards others.
One of the final things I got to do was be a member at the TRC.
There wasn't enough volunteers for us, so my district got to be
volunteers and fellow missionaries in our zone got to teach us. I don't
know how they felt about it, but I absolutely loved being able to see
how far we've all progressed since arriving here. The two that taught
Elder Plate and I were our zone leaders. They're also flying to Taichung
with us. I'm so excited for them to jump into the work as well. We've
all prepared well.
Every Sunday we have 4 films that we can choose from and watch.
Last week, a bunch of us really wanted to watch Testaments for our last
film so we can cry one last time. For those of you who haven't seen it,
wait for the ending. It's a tear jerker. So we searched for President
Brown and begged him. He said he wish he could, but they're on a
schedule. So we kind of lost hope. Then on Saturday when we got the
Sunday bulletin, we saw that Testaments was playing! And that's not all,
they usually show a film in two different languages and he got them to
show it in mandarin! So almost all of us from our Branch were there
watching it in mandarin. That was an eye opener for me. But it was still
so cool that I could understand a lot of it. And yes, even in mandarin,
still a tear jerker. Like all the Elders. So great.
Well I need to be getting off and finalizing my packing. I love you
all! Pray for me. Don't forget to write. If you need my Taiwan address,
my parents have it. Here I go, out to preach the true gospel of Christ.
Inviting others to come unto Him. What a blessing this is to serve. The
Lord loves each and every one of us!
Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter
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