Taiwan Week 6: What a short week!

Dear family and friends,

It's weird writing another email after only 5 days. But I feel like a lot has happened. First, the typhoon never really came. There was a good 2 hour burst of rain that beats out Utah's annual precipitation. But that happens a lot here. And there was wind later that night (Wednesday night), but that was pretty much it. And it felt so good that night riding home from English class. It was nice and cool. The annoying thing about that night was because of the typhoon, everyone stayed home and didn't come to English. Even though it didn't look bad outside at all. So instead of the usual 45ish people that usually come, we had 5. 3 of them are in the advanced class. It was pretty sad. So we all just chilled and talked with them. Which helps them a lot as well. And one of them is one of our progressing investigators and we got to meet with him afterwards. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it answered a lot of questions. We just need to get him to church!

That night starting at 9:00 I got to go on a Zone Leader exchange with Elder Muhlestein. And since we all live in the same apartment, me and Elder Gulas switched rooms. It was pretty fun. But the exchange was really fun. And so far, all my exchanges have had something fail pretty hard. My first involved getting on the wrong train with my district leader. The second was extremely flooded out with a fellow missionary being trained. And now my third with my zone leader and all of the confirmed appointments fell through as we got to each of them. So we did a lot of searching and resulting to back up plans. Thank goodness for back up plans! It was really fun though. Elder Muhlestein is a really positive missionary. And EXTREMELY smart. He's a Harvard man. He can solve a rubics cube in 15 seconds. 17 seconds if he goes by the official Rubik's cube rules. It's pretty cool to watch. But anyway, he's extremely friendly with everyone he comes in contact with and has a positive attitude about everything. I learned a lot in that exchange.

Friday almost felt like we got no missionarying done. We had our regular studies and weekly planning as usual. Then all the missionaries that came out in my group had a meeting in Taizhong at 3:00. So we headed straight there afterwards and were there until 7:00. It was really cool seeing all my MTC friends again though! They're all doing really great. And the meeting was just to see how we all were doing and gave our input of how we think the first 5 weeks have been and what we think needs to be changed about the training. But then that night at 7:15 we had an investigator meeting and we watched The Restoration. He's struggling with Joseph Smith and Prophets. So hopefully that'll help him a bit more.

Elder Taylor is the trainer in Puli with Elder Chan and he was on exchanges with Elder Gulas that night. So he was in our apartment that night and he's really cool. He's from Bountiful and he's in the movie "Unitards." I really wanted to see that movie! Oh, and Elder Allen is in "Unicorn City." What are the odds of that? Also wanted to see that. I love it.

Saturday was pretty good working with the ward council on missionary efforts and how they can help. We always get a lot of volunteers to help. I love this ward! We also had a chance to do service for a recent convert. Finally! I love doing service activites. Also that night we had our investigating family and the wife of our recent convert have their baptismal interviews! They all passed and are planning for this Saturday! I'm so excited! Two completed families baptized into this church. I'm so happy for them. I got to hear the wife of the recent convert talk about how her look at life has changed since meeting with us, and how much it has blessed her life. It was so great. It was really great to see all of them at church as well the next day. They're really loving the ward. I love when everything starts to fall into place.

And today we went to this place called xitou. It is seriously the most intense outdoors beautiful place ever. I'm so in shock. It was beautiful. Way high up in the mountain. We got to hike around and everything. It was so great. That's Taiwan for you!

Well I love you all! I can't wait to hear back from you next week. Please continue to write. I miss you all!

Love, Elder Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 5: The Calm Before The Storm

Dear family and friends,

Sorry this is two days late! Today is Temple Day and our preparation day was moved to today instead of Monday. And none of us remembered to put in our emails. But behold, we have a typhoon upon us right now and President Bishop called us last night and said we can't go to the temple today because of it. We were supposed to have a typhoon a few days ago, but they said it barely missed the coast of Taiwan, so we thought we were safe. But then we got an update yesterday that a new one was coming and should be going through all of Taiwan. It was crazy in the stores yesterday as everyone was buying stuff to prepare. Always be prepared! But anyway, we're all pretty bummed that we can't go to the temple. So far it's been pretty consistent rain today and should get worse tonight. That's when everyone says it'll hit our area. I love the weather here!

Speaking of crazy weather, there was a leadership training meeting last Tuesday and Elder Allen had to go to it. So Elder Chan and I were paired up in his area of Puli. Elder Chan is from England and has an intense accent. And he's only one move call above me. Which means he's still training. So we were both a little nervous to be set loose together. And Puli is extremely beautiful and off in the middle of the mountains. It's so cool there. But as we got there, it started raining a lot. And it usually rains a ton there. But we got more than usual. Actually the streets started flooding and the rivers were overflowing. And it was just us two new guys trying to get through all of it. I've never seen such crazy rapids of water in the streets. Turns out there was flooding all over Taiwan and Puli was one of the worst. I'm pretty glad to say I got to experience it. But it destroyed a lot of land.

We've had some pretty cool new investigators this past week. One guy has been coming to English class for a while and saw Sister Smith's cool scripture case thing and wanted it. She wouldn't give it to her, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him about it. He's was a little whatever about it, but the next week when we sat down with him, he said he'd been going over this tract we gave him and the soul searching questions with scripture references. He said he was actually pretty curious as to how it can bless his life. So we've been meeting with him and he's progressing a lot. We also met this family that owns a clock shop. The parents are Buddhist and the kids are all Christian. They've all moved out, but they come by a lot and we were able to meet all of them. They have this very interesting curiosity in missionary work and wants to learn more. So we've been teaching them a lot too.

Our investigator that had the baptismal goal for this week didn't quite come through. He's been investigating for almost 10 years now, and we went through the interview questions with him and he still has some problems with prophets and the Book of Mormon. So we're really trying to help him, but he is a little hard to get a hold of because of his work. He has this desire to be baptized though. So we're not giving up.

One of our investigators that has the goal for next week doesn't quite feel ready for baptism yet, but loves reading and praying and feeling the peace that comes from it. So we're also very excited for him still. And we still have 3 people that still have their goals for next Saturday. Both of them the families. The recent converts wife, and the couple with two little kids. They also have some concerns of their own, mostly just the social aspect, but with the help of our amazing members' testimonies, they all feel more ready and all 3 of them have their interviews this weekend! So exciting!

On Saturday we had a ward fireside and the 6 missionaries in our ward were in charge of it because it was on effective peike-ing (members in lessons). We had an awesome skit in which we had a demonstration of a good peike lesson and one with a bad peike. The members thought it was so funny. And they said it really helped them know what to do when meeting with our investigators. They love helping so much. And they help so much. I love it.

Yesterday before District training meeting, I passed off lesson 3! I was hoping to pass it off last week, but because of the training meeting in Taizhong, I was unable. But I love the progression I've been making! We also had a really great meeting on recognizing the spirit and following the promptings. As well as how to help our investigators feel those promptings. I know it'll help them so much.

Last night we met with the old Stake President/now young mens President for dinner. He's a really nice guy and always helps peike. Him and his family served a really interesting dinner though. Clam pizza and Shrimp pizza. Pretty interesting right? I never thought I'd have such an opportunity to eat such interesting things. But I ate it none the less. I love all these experiences! Everyone here is so charitable to the missionaries. They're such an example to me.

It's been a packed week with helping many people greater understand this wonderful gospel and helping them come unto Christ and come into the church. I'm so excited for these coming weeks. They're going to be so busy and packed, and I'm so excited!

I love you all! I hope everyone had a great Father's Day! Thank you for all the love and support! Please continue to write and keep me updated on your lives. And I challenge you all to think of someone who you could help lift their spirits. Help them out, and continue to strengthen your friendship. Until next week!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 4: Always Progressing

Dear family and friends,

I can't believe this week will mark my first full month in Taiwan! That's so crazy. We realized that last night after reminiscing our adventures in different monsoon rainfalls. This last week has been pretty adventurous in other weeks! It started out with a zone activity last Monday after emailing. We all met in Caotun and went to a chidaobao. Which is an all you can eat hot pot. So good! I keep eating more and more each time we go to one of those. It was really cool seeing/meeting everyone in my zone. Also, there's these drinks called duoduo. It's like yogurt in the form of a drink. I'm fully addicted to it. It tastes so good. It was all you can drink at the chidaobao. We all love it.

The family that we're working with is really progressing. Last Monday night we brought the Bishop and his family over to their house and taught them about family home evening. They thought it was really nice. Later in the week we met with them and watched Finding Faith in Christ. That movie is so great. Members and investigators alike love that movie. This wonderful family knows everything we teach them is true and they're feeling great about baptism, but they would like to come to church a few more times. And they're having a little problem trying to find out how to tell their parents about wanting to be baptized, because their parents are very baibai (ancestor worship) and want their kids to worship them once they die. So we're still trying to work with that. But other than that, they're doing so great. They came to church yesterday and loved it. During our gospel principles class, he made a comment about repentance and we pointed out that Christ said almost those exact same words in 3 Nephi. He was so in shock and pretty much fell in love with the scriptures even more. So Great! I'm excited to work with them tonight.

The wife of our recent convert has been progressing so much. Her husband has been getting her to read the gospel principles book so much so she can understand what we teach better. And she asks the really good questions that no one else asks, but is usually a thought in their mind. I really love how bold she is with questions. Like she asked why other churches don't use the Book of Mormon as scripture. It's these little interesting questions that are helping her learn so much more and have a desire to learn more. She now has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month! She really wants to work towards it. She also came to church yesterday and she's making so many friends in the Relief Society. She's loving it.

We've been working with a somewhat former investigator. His record is completely full and we think he's had all the lessons and dropped right before getting the baptism interview. It's a little unsure looking on the record. Record keeping is so important. I can't stress that enough. But we've been meeting with him more. He came to church last week and we asked him about his thoughts towards church and baptism. He knows all of it is true. There are just little but essential things that are a problem for him. But he knows it's all true. He said he's been obeying all the commandments, stopped smoking and drinking tea and coffee. So we asked him if he has a desire to be baptized and he said yes. So we've set a goal with him for the 23rd of this month! He wants to work towards it. I'm really hoping. He's such a great guy. Very positive and loves joking around.

Last Thursday we were surprised to find out that a group of students from West Valley, Utah were coming to Nantou for a month as foreign exchange students. We heard they were coming straight to our church from the airport to get an orientation. We called the bishop and asked if he knew and he was like "yeah. Actually... you all should probably be there too." Haha so we got to be their welcome committee and it was nice since a few of us are from Utah. One of them came to church yesterday and had a great time. There's also a kid in each of the hosting families that's going to Utah next month. I guess it's like a kid swap for a month. And the zone leaders came in contact with them before the Utah exchange students arrived and were so excited to learn about the church since Utah has so many members. So from this exchange program, they have this REALLY willing family to teach. Opportunities to teach everywhere!

Sister Porter, the head of the chinese department at the MTC, has flown out here and is going all around to Taiwan to spend a day with everyone in my MTC group to see our progression since we were the first in the 9 week pilot program. So on Saturday she was with us and got to watch our studies and our ward correlation meeting. And it just so happened that as part of my weekly training, I had to take the lead in working with our ward mission leader and discuss the progress of our investigators. So she had good timing to take part in that. Then she said the church is volunteering to pay for a meal of our choice. So we went to a steak chidaobao, recommended by zone leader Elder Muhlelstein. And it was so good! So much food. Then we got to take a taxi all over our area and visit with a potential investigator and a less active. It was really fun. Then we had interviews with her about the pilot program and she left. It was such a cool day. I could tell she really missed being here. She served in this mission as well.

On Saturday night in the middle of the night I got to experience my first EARTHQUAKE! It was really cool. We actually didn't really know it was an earthquake until the next morning. I was dead asleep and next thing I know, my bed is shaking like crazy. Mine and Elder Allen's beds are right next to each other. I have 3 mattresses piled on top of each other, and he has 2. So mine is really shaky and I thought he was like kicking my bed or something. But then we were informed that it was an earthquake. We're supposed to be getting bed frames in the next 2 weeks, and I'm so glad we don't have them yet. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed that cool experience!

Last night we went to a member family's house. This week's zone leader invite was to get members involved in inviting others to come to church and get referrals from them. So we met with them in the far south mountains of our area in the middle of a huge rain storm. They're such a great family. The wife is Philipino and they have two teenage boys. It was a lot of fun and they're actually already working with the husbands brothers and asking them about church and stuff. Way to go them! Then we had the most intense trail biking experience as we were on this epic flooded trail in the dark in the middle of the biggest storm I've ever experienced. I loved it. The family didn't think we'd want to go all the way out to their house, but we assured them that distance isn't a problem to visit with them. What a great family!

I'm so excited for this coming week! The weather is supposed to be very stormy. We have some great appointments and new families to visit. It's going to be a great week of learning and serving.

I love you all! I pray for you all daily. I hope everything is going well. Please continue to write and keep me updated! Don't let any moment pass you by. Look to serve everyone! The Lord loves each and every one of us. Put your trust in Him and he'll guide you. And for all you fathers, have a happy Fathers Day! Happy Fathers day dad! I love you so much! You're such a great example to me. I'm so glad I can call you my father. Thank you for all you've done in raising me to be who I am! Until next week.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter 

Taiwan week 3: Game Day

Dear family and friends,

This past week has been very eventful. I don't quite know how to organize it in this email. I guess it all started last preparation day after emails, us and the ming jian elders spent a lot of the day in Nantou city and just adventured around. Every move call, we go on exchanges with the district leader and another exchange with the zone leaders. One of the ming jian elders is the district leader, so we planned to just do it after the training meeting on Tuesday. But last Monday night while we were teaching an investigator at the church, we asked one of our recent converts to peike for us (help teach the lesson). He was baptized a few weeks before I got here and is so solid. We also planned to meet with him afterwards and have a lesson with him. He said he was going to try to bring a friend from work too. So he showed up a little late with a girl to peike and we let him in and asked if the girl he brought was his girlfriend. He said "nope, this is my wife." What?! Elder Allen was one of the elders that taught him and baptized him and didn't even know he was married. And she's 6 months pregnant. That was a shock to both of us. It turns out he normally lived in mainland China and came down here without her to find work first, which is where he ran into the missionaries and got baptized. So she just got here a few days before that and is interested. So now we're teaching them as a family. Which is so amazing! But she really has no knowledge of Christianity. It really shows us the need to teach for understanding and teaching simply. But we love teaching her and having her husband there as another testimony.

I got to go with Elder Croft to ming jian for a day. It was really cool. I could really see the emphasis of being a friend to everyone we come in contact with. He is so friendly to everyone. He said "after the first few seconds of looking at someone, you have the automatic assumption of what kind of person they are. If you can push past that an instantly think they're another brother of sister, a son or daughter of God, you'll develop the love and desire to help them know and partake of this gospel." I learned a lot about sincerely listening and seeking to understand the needs of people. That became our focus of the exchange. It was so amazing. We also got lost because we were involved in a deep gospel discussion and got on the wrong train back to the apartment. We actually left our zone and had to call President Bishop and let him know we were going to be late getting back. It was funny. He thought it was funny. I also passed off the first lesson to Elder Croft and am actually passing off the 2nd tomorrow! Learning the language comes faster and faster through listening and speaking.

For some mysterious reason, we've run into a lot of people that speak really good english and have been teaching them a bit in english. It's kind of weird. We have a family, a guy that comes to our english class, and these 3 students. Of of them was born in LA and knows really good english. It was really cool though being able to teach them. Right now, it was a lot easier to teach them and get more involved because I could understand everything they were saying. A good relief for now!

We have a secondary area called Zhong liao that is pretty far away in the mountains. We have a potential investigator up there and we went to meet him. And that was easily the most painful bike ride I've ever been on. It was the hottest day I've experienced so far and it was completely uphill. We were drenched in sweat. But it was so great. We got to meet with a less active on the way and invited him to come back to church. Then when we got to the guys house, I learned that he is in the airforce and is a pretty intense guy. But so nice. Although he seems a little more interested in being buds than learning about the church. We had dinner there, and I'm still in shock. I ate fish. Like it was a full fish staring at me while I ate it. It was so interesting. Still trying to get used to it.

I thought that was an intense experience, until the next day... We went to something like an outdoor food court and just ordered these noodles that we weren't sure what was in them. To my utter shock, it was noodles with squid, clams, crab, fish ball, processed fish patty things, and some other kind of fish. I still can't believe I ate it. And that has set the standard for most interesting food so far. I'm trying new stuff everyday!

Sunday was absolutely amazing! Our main three progressing investigators, one of them a family, all came to church. Plus 2 that are still a little curious about meeting with us. On top of that, all our recent converts were there, and 4 less actives that we have been working with. Including the one from Zhong liao. It was so great! We were having a party getting all of them involved in the lessons. It was so much fun. They all really loved it. I was so happy. I was especially happy to hear the father of the family say church has strengthened his faith so much and his whole family loves it. The wife of our recent convert says she understands so much more now and is excited to learn. And our other main progressing investigator said he loved the peace he felt there and all he was able to learn. Attendance at church jumped from in the 80's to 103. What a great Fast Sunday!

We have also started up a single's family night every Sunday night. So it was a lot of fun getting all the single members there to get to know each other more. They all had fun. And there are still so many more that haven't come yet.

I'm so excited to see what happens this week! So many great experiences are ahead. I love reaching out and serving everyone here. I'm learning so much and seeing miracles everyday. The life of a missionary is so different, but I'm loving every bit of it.

I love you all! I love hearing about everyone's lives back home. Please continue to write and keep me updated! The Lord loves each and every one of us. Look for and be thankful for all the blessings in your life. This church is true. It has blessed my life so much and I can see it blessing the lives of all those who are learning more about it everyday. It's such a blessing to have the scriptures to learn from everyday. I love having all the guidance of the scriptures. Continue to read and pray everyday and I know it'll bless your life. I love you all! Until next week.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

 We tried to wedgie our pants to be old school

 On the plane to Taiwan

Elder Petter right before he left to go home