Taiwan Week 11: Baptism and When It Rains It Pours

Dear family and friends,

What a week it has been! It's been so full of amazing experiences. We started the week going on exchanges with the zone leaders. That was a lot of fun. I was with Elder Ostvig. And it was a little nerve racking since he came to my area and I was pretty much the senior for the day. So I was leading him and Elder Yang (duan chuan) around to all the lessons, and then taking the lead in the lessons. But it was really fun. We didn't get a whole lot done though because it started raining really hard and lightning was striking everywhere. We were at McDonald's when it started and we were confined to it for a while. So we got our calling done in the mean time. I think lightning struck the building too, because thunder followed directly afterwards and the whole building started shaking. It was pretty cool.

Wednesday was absolutely crazy. While trying to find and visit some less active members, it started storming like crazy; crazier than I've ever seen. We were in Nantou kind of high on the mountain, and we knew we had to go higher. Lightning is striking everywhere and the roads were flooding. All the streets were just waterfalls. We could barely see where we were going because the rain was so heavy and the wind was so powerful. But we kept going. We were giving it our all trying to go up this steep road. But then the wind picked up a lot more and knocked us off our bikes. At that point we decided we needed to get out of there. Whenever they warn us of a typhoon, nothing happens. But when it's a perfectly fine day, chaos. It was so crazy. That night was English class, and we didn't think anyone would come because of the storm. But we actually had 7 newcomers. That's pretty much a record for one week. What was even better was that most of them have interest in the church and came to church yesterday. So cool! They all want to learn more. They stayed all 3 hours. I'm really excited for them.

The biggest news this week is that the Hong family got baptized! It was so great. I'm so happy for them. All last week, they were just doing all they could to get familiar with the ward and have their questions answered concerning the process of being baptized. It's always fun practicing! They didn't seem to have any fears. And then when it all came down to the baptism, they loved it. And their testimonies were so amazing. It was such a great experience. They're loving coming to church and learning more about family history work. Pictures will be coming next week. We don't have much time today.

This morning we had a good chunk of our recent converts come over early in the morning to play basketball with us at the church. Chuson, Song Zhi Hao, and the Hong dad. It was really cool. They all have this old school style about them. And they're way skilled. It was so much fun. Then Chuson took us to Sun Moon Lake today. It was way fun. This island is so beautiful. We got to do so much stuff. But time ran short. Hence the shorter email.
I love you all so much! Thanks for the letters and all the support. Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us. Keep reaching out to others as much as you can. Go out of your way to say hey. You never know when you'll make some one's day. Until next Monday!

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 10: Zone Conference

Dear family and friends,

This week has been so much fun. Pretty much every night since we built the bunk bed, we've been having to make adjustments to make the bed more stable. The stuff the mission office originally gave us wasn't nearly enough. While we were there for zone conference, they gave us 8 more metal pieces to help stabalize it. And Chuson, amazing recent convert, gave us some boards to use as well. There's just always more to add onto!

Zone Conference was really so amazing! It was so much fun to see everyone in the north part of our mission. I got to meet a ton of new people. It was a lot of fun. We had lessons on repentence, forgiveness, the purpose of our mission standards, emergency preparedness, and stress management. It was so great. We also had reflections from all the missionaries going home next move call. It really was so touching and exciting. Elder Muhlestein's reflection hit me the most. I'm so glad I've been able to room with him for his last 2 move calls.

Yang Zhang lao is still with us. He's really cool. He adapted to missionary life really fast. Except for the sleep schedule. He's always falling asleep if he's sitting for too long. It's so funny. Time really has flown fast with him. It's sad that he's headed home on Thursday. Two weeks isn't long enough. Even though he's 15.

This week we also were able to serve Chuson. Last week during our exchange, Elder Allen and Elder Croft painted one of his outside walls. So this week we finished the other wall. It was so fun. We were just out on his roof in the hot sun painting this 3 story house. I've never sweat so much in my life. We also brought a simplified Book of Mormon over for his grandma. Or at least who we call his grandma. It's kind of a further distance relative. But she decided she wanted to read the Book of Mormon one day and started reading Chuson's. But his is traditional and she's from mainland China and understands simplified more. So we were more than happy to get a simplified one for her! What a miracle that was.

We've come in contact with some really cool less active members as well. One we've been meeting with for a while call US up and said he wanted us to come over to visit. And after we were done sharing with him, he took us to his mom's house to share a bit with her. And lucky Elder Yang was with us because she pretty much only spoke Taiwanese. He's been teaching us a little bit too. We found another less active group of siblings by the help of neighbors. They had moved a few years back and the old neighbors took us to their new house. We caught them at the perfect time. They were all visiting their mom. Even one of them who lives in Taipei was here to visit. They haven't really had contact with missionaries in almost 10 years. They were so happy to meet with us again. And they said even though they don't live with their mom anymore their mom isn't a member, we're free to come over any time and talk with her and she'll give us food. Pretty random, but really hospitable.

Alright. Now for the big news. We were meeting with the Hong family. The investigating family that passed their baptismal interview a few weeks back but haven't set a baptismal date. We had Song Zhi Hao come peike. He's the recent convert who's wife was just baptized. He shared his baptismal experience. And then Elder Yang shared his because he was baptized 3 years ago. And then there was silence for a few minutes. Then the Hong dad, in his decision making voice, said "Alright. When is the next baptism?" We said the 28th. And him and his wife were all for it! So at church yesterday, the bishop announced it and the Hong family was so excited once it was announced. So they're getting baptized this Saturday! They feel comfortable and welcome in the ward. They know it's all true. They love learning more. Especially about family history and sealing your family together. I'm so excited for them.

Well that's my week in a letter! It's been quite an eventful week. I'm excited to get this week started! I love you all! Please continue to write. Do all you can to reach out to those who are in need of help. Be an example of the believers!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 9: A Trainee Helping Train

Dear family and friends,

Well to start off, I have a cockroach crawling on my leg right now. I think he likes me. This past week has been pretty interesting. They announced to missions all around the world that every month we are now going to have combined zone training meetings. So last week was our first one. It was really cool. We talked about contacting and appropriate ways to go about doing it. If you're really stiff or fake, it's not going to be that great. Just like in real life, we gotta be friends with everyone we talk to.

After the training meeting, we did a district leader exchange. District leader Elder Croft came up here to Nantou with Elder Allen, and I went down to Mingjian with Elder Bee. It's so beautiful down there. As far as I know, it's the biggest area in the mission, and it's a lot of mountainside and countryside. We took a train to Shuili to find a lady and her family. They were so close to being baptized a while back, but the dad didn't want any of them to. We were going to go visit them and talk with him a bit more. But when we got there, they had moved. No luck. But wait! The neighbor came out and handed us some of the lady's mail that was sent there by mistake. It had the address where they moved to. So we go on the epic chase around the town and up the mountain; random extremely nice families helping us find the street as we go along. But no luck. They had moved again. I guess they move a lot. One of the people helping us noticed a smaller written address that looked investigatable. So we go searching for that one. But no one knew where the street was. We asked this family and they were all for helping us. They even called up the city mayor and he came over. He didn't know, so he called up the next guy in line and he said he'd help us. But we had to head back, so they gave us their numbers for another day. Talk about diligence and amazing people!

This past week we were very unlucky with set up first appointments. We'd get there and most of the time the people weren't there. It happened quite a lot. And President Bishop's weekly invite was to have a member at as many lessons a possible. We had set up most of our lessons with our progressing investigators with a member, and most of our investigators had to cancel at the last minute. So we had to call our peike's up and tell them never mind. It was rough. But one thing I really liked that came from a cancelled lesson was the fact that a less active set up at the last minute. He's been through so much. And even just in the time I've been here, he's struggling a lot. But he's made so many improvements. It was a really good meeting with him. He was excited to come to church and everything! He had to cancel on Saturday because of family matters, but he still really wanted to.

One thing I realized is how useful it is to get a peike who's age matches the age of the investigator. They get along really well. We have an older investigator and we were able to get a high priest leader to come, and he was able to relate to our investigator so much. I was so glad! I really love the help of the members.

So now for some pretty big news. The Taizhong stake is doing an activity in which the youth has a chance to be missionaries. A member missionary is called a duanchuan (short term missionary). Our companionship was chosen to have one! So on Saturday we picked up a 15 year old and he'll be staying with us for 2 weeks! It's pretty interesting. I'm still being trained and we're also now training him. It's a little hard since he only speaks a little English. But it can get pretty fun. Our apartment is way packed though. It was crammed with 4 people. Now we have 5. It's crazy. BUT, we let the mission office know about our little sleeping space dilemma and they sent over a ton of pieces of metal and screws and said build a bunk bed. You have no idea how hard it was to do it from scratch. But we did it! It's pretty intense, and probably against safety standards. But it saves a ton of room and we can fit another mattress on the floor for our duanchuan. He's Elder Yang. It'll be a fun few weeks!

We were surprised at church yesterday to see President Bishop sitting on the stand with our Area 70. None of us knew either of them were coming. But it was very cool. They were able to meet one of our investigators and his son, who came for the first time yesterday. And they liked it!

Well that's pretty much all the news for now. We have Zone Conference tomorrow. So much to report on that next time. I love you all! I miss you all. Please continue to write. I love letters! Well, I'm off to an all you can eat hot pot. Until next week!

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 8: Effects Of A Simple Question

Dear family and friends,

I feel like this past week we finally got to get back into good old fashion missionary work, with concentrated tracting, contacting, and teaching new people. The few weeks before just seemed so scattered with various training meetings and exchanges everywhere. But this past week has been very good for finding. We've tracted some really cool areas that we've never tracted before and have found some really cool people that are willing to learn more. One of the areas is close to the southern most point of our area. After these houses is just fields and open land. It's pretty cool. We were able to find two new families and a kid in college. That's quite a lot for just a few streets!

We're now teaching our new recent convert and her husband (also a recent convert) the new convert lessons. He's already had them from when he was baptized, and now he's also helping us teach her. It's so great! They're really such a cute couple. They have a ton of questions about the temple and they really want to go. We showed them pictures of temples around the world and it just made them more excited. It also seems like they want to learn english from us as well. Every time I'm trying to explain something and I can't, they say to say it in english. That way I can learn the word, and so can they. So funny. We also got into the story of pioneers and it was so funny trying to explain why they had to be in covered wagons as they traveled.

Since Wednesday was Independence Day, we gathered all the stuff in our apartment that had any American influence (which was not much) and sang the patriotic songs. We even had to result to our apples that said "US grown." It was really great though. And people on the streets would tell us happy July 4th. It felt good to still feel the love of our country away from our country.

That night was english class, and I am now the English Leader! It's not a whole lot, but it's pretty cool. I'm in charge of new student forms and book order forms and reporting the weekly numbers. It feels good to be given responsibility.

We also had a little complication meeting with some potential investigators. Every time we'd go over to their house, they would be out and we'd schedule another time to go back, and then they would call us and have to change again. It was a vicious cycle. But we were also to find some really cool less active members that we've never met before. They're really everywhere. There are roughly 600 members in our ward records, but only about 100 that come every week to church. So there are plenty of opportunities to rescue! And just being able to befriend them makes them want to come back. Every member needs a friend in the church.

Church was really great! We had quite a few of investigators come to church, and the members just dove in and did all they could to help them feel welcome. That's how it should be. Members are so important in missionary work! We even had some of our peike's invite the investigators to church. And one of them was just golden. When he felt the time was right, he bore his testimony of church and invited our investigator. Then he went even further and asked for his phone number so he can get in contact with him that morning. And wait there's more! He offered to pick him up and give him a ride to church! Hook, line, and sinker! It really seemed like they were connecting too. Our investigator is 18 and our peike is 22. Not too far off in age. It was so good.

The biggest thing that hit me this week is actually really amazing. My first week here on island, we were tracting in this kind of rich area and found this 22 year old kid who lives with his parents and younger brother. We were talking to him for a bit and getting to know him and telling him about our church. But as soon as we asked if we could come back another time, he paused for a few minutes and finally said no. Bummer... But there was just something about him. After a while, we pushed it aside. Last week, we got a call from the sisters in our area and they said they were tracting and found him and he said he talked to us before. He said we asked him a question about God and what he thinks his relationship with Him is. And he hasn't been able to forget it. We knew we had to go back and find him. We came across him, his brother, and his dad. (Mom is in China and Dad just barely left yesterday for China as well for work). His dad really happily let us in. He said him and his wife are open to all religions and the dad said he wants us to meet with his sons. It was really funny because both of them are like "Dad! Wait a second!" But the dad just kept saying it'll be good for them. So we went back the next night, Saturday, and got to know each other a bit.

Last night, we didn't have a set time to come back, so we came by at 8:00. It was just the two brothers since the dad was headed to China. The window shades were completely open and the door is mostly made of glass. So we could see there were some lights on upstairs. We kind of knocked on the door, but not loud enough. So I knock harder and it slammed shut. We didn't realize it was open just a crack. And the slam sounded so mysteriously like a trap went off. It was a little scary. Next thing we know, we hear heavy footsteps from upstairs. We see a flashlight shining down the stairs and the boy and his brother come down wielding legit swords. They were ready to fight. It was insane! So we were freaking out, yelling to them that it's just us. When they heard the slam, they thought people were breaking in. It was so funny. But in the end, we got talking and they both said they're not really into religion. But the more we talk with them, the more they have questions. I really hope this develops more. It's just amazing what can come from a simple question. A question can have such an impact on someone. That made me really think about contacting and how amazing the questions we ask are.

And that is my week at a glance! I miss you all! I love you all! I hope everyone had a great July 4th! I can't wait to hear from all of you! And my challenge this week is to think about, and share a simple powerful statement of truth to someone. Maybe to a coworker or a neighbor. Like "God loves all of us." It's amazing what can come from a simple statement.

Until next week!

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 7

Dear friends and family,

 

What an insane week! Last Tuesday as we were getting ready for companionship study (us and the zone leaders sing together and we're singing every hymn in the book in order), they randomly said we need to sing Elder Gulas' favorite song. Which is also the song we were planning to sing at the baptism the coming Saturday. We were a little confused, but we went all out. Then he started hugging us. Nothing like getting hugged from a model. Haha. Then they finally told us he was going Assistant to the President and leaves the next morning! It's so great! But we all miss him like crazy. We got up a little early on Wednesday and he gave us all Taiwanese hair cuts so we can carry on the handsome look in Nantou. And it's actually not that bad. And we're actually getting a lot of compliments. The only weird thing is that it looks a lot like an American 80's haircut. But we like it.

 

The problem with him leaving on Wednesday is that move day wasn't until today. So Elder Muhlestein's new companion didn't come until today. So we were in a tripanionship until today. That's a little hard covering two areas. Especially since our city is 30 minutes away. So we had to separate the days by areas. We spent the rest of Wednesday in Caotun. And that night for English class, it was party night. And Elder Allen and I wore suits that are between 30 and 40 years old that he got from one of his recent converts in the ward. It was so awesome.

Then we spent Thursday in Nantou. Each day we had a good amount of lessons. Monday night we met with our investigating family and they said the weren't too sure about being baptized on Saturday because of the baibai problem with the husbands parents. and then on Thursday night, they said they want to do a little more praying about it first because at times it feels like they want to be baptized for the missionaries. And we don't want that! So we're happy for them for wanting to be baptized for the right reasons. And they're still really willing to be baptized. They just don't feel ready yet.

 

Friday was in Caotun and we were able to meet with a lot of their progressing investigators. We also met with one of their families who they really like and it got so interesting. Our time had pretty much run out and the wife had a lot of questions for our peikes that came. They were husband and wife, also converts, so the investigator wife had many questions for them. Soon they started only speaking in Taiwanese. And at that point I was pretty lost. Elder Allen described Taiwanese perfectly. If you listen to someone just talk in Taiwanese for a long time, it starts to sound like the language of the Ewoks on Star Wars. Pretty awesome if you ask me. So I'm still giving my all to follow Chinese, and now she decided to switch it up. And every so often, she'd stop and ask us three missionaries if we understood. I was as involved in that conversation as a pile of dirt. But Elder Muhlestein, who is now on his final move call, had learned a little Taiwanese and said he understood a little bit. So all the adults would laugh and start talking even faster. It was so interesting.

 

Saturday was pretty interesting because we had to go to Yuanlin so Elder Muhlestein could interview someone to be baptized. It was very interesting having to help do zone leader stuff as well. But it was really fun. BUT not as great as that night as we got ready for a BAPTISM! So great! Recent converts wife was ready and so excited! We did a little practice using a chair in font because she's really pregnant and can't risk going back like a normal baptism. She felt really comfortable with the chair. And It was seriously such an amazing baptism. The spirit was so strong. And most of the ward was there since there was a ward activity that day and it ended right before the baptism. It was absolutely adorable seeing husband baptizing wife. So precious! And then us three missionaries sang a musical number of "How Great Thou Art" that we arranged A Capella. And we must have sounded pretty good. We thought we did, and we got a ton of compliments from the ward and family that came to the baptism. The Sister who was baptized really liked it and was smiling the whole time. What a great night!

 

At church the next day she was confirmed and even more happy than the night before. It was a really great day at church. Like half the testimonies given were about the baptism the night before and how amazing it was. They all loved it. It was a good Sabbath day. And this ward choir that started up a few weeks ago is really coming together. None of us really know what it's for still, but we think it might be for a stake talent show in a month or so. I really have no idea. But we're sounding good now!

 

Today we went to Yuanlin again today to pick up Elder Ostvig, Elder Muhlesteins new companion and the new zone leader. He seems pretty cool. Most of the Elders in the zone met there and we all ate at Subway. SO delicious! I missed it so much.

 

Well I love you all! Thank you for the emails. I'm pretty sad that I missed the anniversary party and now the reunion. But Happy Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa! It's been a great 19 years on my part in this family! Hope the reunion is a blast! I love you all. Please stay safe from the fires. Most people here are caught up on the news of the world. So when they ask where we're from, they tell us anything that's happening in Utah. It sounds pretty serious. Be safe! Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of His Children.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter