Taiwan Week 13: A Whole New World

Dear family and friends,

Well, it happened. Nantou area was shut down. It was pretty rough telling all our investigators that it won't be us next time the missionaries meet with them. They were pretty confused. We found out on Thursday, so we did an emergency exchange and Elder Allen took Elder Ostvig all around our area to show him where all our investigators are; that way none of them get lost or forgotten in the move. And then telling all our recent converts was even harder. They all knew Elder Allen was going to move since he'd been there for so long. But when they learned that I was too, they were confused. At least they all know Elder Ostvig. And a lot of them know Elder Ostvig's new companion too. Elder Bennett. He was in our zone already.

Last Tuesday we had a zone scramble. That's when everyone in the zone goes to different places. I went with Elder Fiala to his area of Yuanlin. It was a lot of fun. His city is a bit bigger than mine, so it was pretty different seeing so many people in the streets. I'm more used to the open country with a semi large city. So different.

Wednesday night at English class was so great. It was the party night and we made it Olympic themed. We just had a spelling bee and a spelling game involving ping pong and stuff like that. But we had a lot of people show up. Us and the Zone leaders had a lot of investigators there as well and we all had to split up to sit with all of them afterwards. So there were 4 rooms of investigators all at once. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday during our emergency exchange, I went with Elder Muhlestein to Caotun. It was a lot of fun as well. I learned a lot. They've been working with a guy for a long time and he's had a really rough life. I was so happy to find that he's doing all he can to get baptized. He straight up quit smoking and drinking. He says he's always tempted to try it again, but he's trying to have faith in his prayers to overcome it. That's gotta be quite a struggle! I can't even imagine. Such amazing miracles through faith.

Saturday was pretty chill. We had a lot of back to back lessons at the church. So we were there pretty much all day. We got to sit with Song and Wu and tell them that we were both moving. They were pretty sad, but we told them that we could go with them to the temple next year and they were really excited for that. Right after all our lessons, we had a long choir practice for the stake talent show that night. All that last minute music cramming sent me back to high school. It's harder in Chinese though. The talent show was in Yuanlin, that's where our stake center is. It was so much fun. Our ward really went all out and we got a big applause after our big number. Us 4 Elders had a bit of a solo at the end of it. It was sweet!

Afterwards was MOVE CALL MADNESS!!! It really is crazy how much people care about where everyone is going. Some missionaries go all out and make brackets and have theories and ways of figuring out who is going to become trainer and who is going to become a leader of some kind. It's more crazy than March Madness. I found out that I was going to Tainan! So cool! It's the same city that Elder Allen started at, but I'm in a different area than he was. Elder Allen is going Zone leader in Taizhong. Pretty sweet! Church was really amazing. Us two and Elder Muhlestein spoke in church since we were all leaving. It was really spiritual. And a guy who served a mission here and his family came back to visit and came to our ward for church. We were all a little shocked to see a whole family of Americans. But they're from Alpine, Utah. He's really cool. I thought it was really sweet to find out which people in the ward were taught and baptized by him.

We had our final dinner at Chuson's house that night. Us 4 Elders were there. He really knows how to make a feast. His mom was also baptized on Saturday! We got to talk to her on Skype for a little bit. She's so sweet. When we hung up, she immediately called us back and said we need to say a prayer together. She's pretty set to endure to the end. I'm so excited for her and her family.

We got to visit the Hong family at the end of the night. They couldn't make it to church because they were in Tainan visiting family. But they were also shocked that we were both leaving. And they also expressed excitement to see us next year at the temple. And who knows, I could probably see them down here someday! A little unlikely though. I could also someday move back up to that area again. You never know.

I'm now down in Tainan. And it is a whole lot hotter! I got to take a really sweet train down here. I was on it with Elder Croft, and he described it as being on the starship enterprise. Pretty close. My new companion is Elder Hoopes! He's really cool. And I've only known him for about an hour now. He came on the same time as Elder Allen though. And this will be his 5th move call here in Tainan. So he's pretty knowledgeable in the area. This place is really huge! This is a big city. I'm so excited to get things started!

Well that's my week! Time to start anew and get going! I love you all! Please continue to write. Remember, the Lord loves you!

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Pictures from week 11 and 12

Pictures from it's always easier to seave in a disaster

Hong Family

Tradistional clothing.. he thinks. Found at Sun Moon Lake

Coll Aborigines playing tribal music

Chuson

On the boat on Sun Moon Lake

 Sun Moon Lake

 Par of Nautou from 15 stories up



Pictures from the letter called Zone Conference



At an all you can eat steak place

The metal they gave us

Out finished masterpiece

The 5 man apartment

Taiwan Week 12: It's Always Easy To Serve In A Disaster

Dear family and friends,

Well... They announced a typhoon, and it came. Hard. It came right after English class on Wednesday, which was nice because we had a good turn out with 6 more new people! It stormed during the night and everything was shaking. I can't even begin to imagine how fast the wind was going. We had some leakage areas the next morning in our apartment, but not too bad. I think the morning was when it was at it's peak of the storm. I tried to get a picture of the street flooding outside our apartment, but it didn't turn out too well. By the time we got out, the wind was back down to just crazy storm status, but it was raining really hard. Storms are the best time to visit people because everyone is inside. Actually, everyone got calls the night before and said the city was going to be shut down. So no one had work! We got to visit some investigators, and they just had to let us in from the storm. Then we went to visit Tony, a recent convert. His house was flooding really bad. The water was just pouring in. So we helped him as much as we could build a blockade. The streets were all completely flooded over and about 6 inches deep and just flowing all over the place. They completely shut down all the bridges into Nantou because they were flooded over. So we had no way into our main area with most of our investigators and members. But we still have a lot in Zhongxing. Our next stop was a student investigator. And his road became a rushing river. At this point, we were used to walking around in mid calve deep water. Taiwan mission rule of thumb: unless the water is up to your waist, you can still go out an work. And I really enjoyed going out in the storm We helped them and all their neighbors build blockades around their house. It was pretty intense. We did a lot of tracting since we were out in an area with houses we haven't been to yet. Only after an hour since leaving our student investigators street, we drove past it and it was blocked off by the police and it was completely under probably 2 feet of water. Totally rough... That's how the whole town was by the end of the day.

In other news, I completely passed off phase 1 of my language learning! I'm so glad. It felt like a huge accomplishment. Now I'm on phase 2, which is just a ton of flashcards. I'm really enjoying it. I find that I learn really well with flashcards.

A family in our ward likes to have all the missionaries in the ward over at the end of each move call for dinner. And they also invite over other families in the ward too. It was a lot of fun. It was kind of in behalf of Elder Muhlestein since he's going home, and Elder Allen since we're pretty sure he's leaving. Move day is next week. He's been here for 5 move calls. One of the Sisters might move too. And there's also a rumor going around that they're closing down the Caotun area. When an area closes down, both those missionaries move out and the nearest missionaries take over that area. Caotun in the Zone leaders' area, but since they need to stay there because they're the zone leaders, I would be the one leaving too. Which would be really sad. We've found some really amazing people these past 2 weeks. I want to work with them more. Plus, there was a mini move call today since an Elder needs to get home for the Air force. So Elder Taylor in Puli moved down to Gaoxiong to be a zone leader. So cool! And... Elder Nickell is coming up here! Yeah, Elder Nickell in our home stake that I grew up with. So excited. He's now in my zone! So that's another reason why I'm hoping not to move.

We have this really sweet new investigator. His surname is Li. We found him one peaceful night on our biggest bridge just staring off. He's such a humble guy. We sat with him on Friday night and finally got to talk about the Book of Mormon (there's always interruptions and not enough time.) And we invited him to read it. He said "but I'm not always here. I won't be able to have you two over enough read it." And that's when we said we were giving it to him. And he just went into complete shock. He said "you're giving me this book?" Well yeah! And he just jumped in and started flipping through pages. He was so excited. And he's been keeping his other commitments as well. Such a solid guy. And his daughter came to English and really likes it. She also sits in on the lessons when she can. It's so amazing getting to work with this family.

Also, the day before the typhoon, we were heading up to meet a family way up on the mountain, and we sat down to eat out dinner a couple streets away. The people whose house we were eating in front of came home. The teenage boy walked up to us and said he knew us. It was a kid we came up to at the park 3 days after I got here to Taiwan. It was so crazy. They were warning us to hurry off the mountain before it comes. They were the funniest to watch as we said we're excited to be in a typhoon. But they said we could come back and meet with them again. And we did just that. The whole family is so sweet. We're excited to meet with them more.

Well that's my week at a glance! I am safe. We're all safe over here. We looked at the typhoon as a party and all the natives thought we were crazy. I'm so excited for these coming weeks. We found some really cool people to teach this past week. I'm going to be getting a new companion next week as well. That'll be such a change. Elder Allen is so awesome!

I love you all! Keep the faith! One thing I really loved to read this past week was when the Lord walked on water and told Peter to come out as well. He was going until he got scared and started sinking. He cried "Lord, save me." And the Lord reached out and grabbed him. We're going to be facing trials in our lives. We'll start sinking into the water. But when we realize that we can't do it alone and cry to the Lord for help, he'll be there to grab us and help us.

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter