Dear family and friends,
This past week has been so intense! To start off, it's a lot hotter
here. Like, hot. I down a ton of water each day and I'm so drained at
the end of the day. Here's a little bit about my area. I'm over Anping
chu, Zhongxi chu, and Nan chu. Those are the districts of the city.
It's pretty much the west/middle/south part of Tainan. It's so cool
here! We have the ocean right there and there's a huge beach. Our
apartment is on the 16th floor. It's just us two and it's a pretty
roomy place. We live right in front of a river, and we have a sweet
view of the city. There aren't any mountains, but there are plenty of
tall buildings. The city is way packed! It's what you imagine when you
think of an asian city. It's just filled with people.
My district is really cool. We have the zone leaders and the sisters.
They're all really sweet. We have fun and learn a lot! Our building
has 2 wards, both starting around the same time. The zone leaders go
to the other one, and the sisters split up and cover both. Our ward
has about 80 people each week. They're all so friendly!
When I first got here, Elder Hoopes said we're pretty much starting
from scratch because almost everyone he had the week before either
never answered their phone, or weren't progressing at all. And 7 of
them dropped him in the same day. That's rough. So we had 3
investigators and a few long term investigators that struggle to
progress, but still want to learn more. It was hard, but fun work to
find new people. We actually had a self contact that wanted to know
the difference between his church and ours. And he set up for the same
day! That was lucky. But he doesn't really want to accept any truth.
He likes to Bible bash more and try to prove us wrong.
On Wednesday we had a district english procelyting. It was really fun
going to this HUGE intersection and passing out flyers whenever there
was a red light. Sooo many scooters... English was a lot of fun. I'm
over the advanced class again, which is supposed to be conversation,
and they don't like to talk. I've never been so outgoing in my life,
trying to get people to talk. They're all really cool though and start
asking a ton of questions if I say something they don't understand.
Afterwards there was a guy in the beginner class that had some
interest in the gospel! Elder Hoopes had two guys in his class as
well. So we split up and I got to teach this guy. He was so excited to
learn more. I taught him about prayer and had my peike bear his
testimony on prayer. We had the guy say his first prayer and loved it.
When I invited him to pray daily, he was so willing and was nearly
bouncing around. It was so great!
Thursday was really great as we got to travel further south and visit
a less active member, as well as go along the coast and visit another
less active member. They're both really sweet. Very friendly. And one
of them came to church! That night we had an absolutely AMAZING lesson
with another guy that came to english class the night before. He's
just finishing up with college and wants to know the meaning of life.
GOLDEN! He had our little pamphlet thing that we hand out to everyone
and read the back page, which has questions of the soul and chapters
in the Book of Mormon to answer them. We introduced him to the Book of
Mormon and picked out a few questions that he was pondering. Elder
Hoopes and I would take turns finding scriptures in the chapter that
can help him understand, and he was completely mind blown. We gave him
a Book of Mormon and he said he will for sure read it. We then brought
up baptism and invited him to be baptized, and the Spirit was just
swirling around us! He very happily said yes and committed to the
soonest date possible. So sweet! Sadly it was dropped because he had a
family thing and had to go to it instead of church. But he kept
calling us to apologize and wants to continue meeting. That's a good
sign. We're meeting with him tonight!
Friday was pretty weird. We had weekly planning as usual, and set off.
After contacting a ton of people and finding some really great people
that set up for later, we tracted in this pretty creepy back alley.
Like the cats were making that scary cat noise, there was a mysterious
water drip coming from nowhere, and there was a house with an open
doorway and no light inside. It was creepy. And no success... We
headed more south through a cemetery to find some less active members
and ended up sitting with a guy we met on the street. He's really
humble and loved hearing about the restoration and hope. He didn't
make it to church like he said, but I hope we get to meet with him
again.
Saturday started really good, and ended really bad. Two people that we
contacted into the day before set up to meet on Saturday and both made
it. And it just so happened that the place for meeting both of them
was in the same area that was completely packed full of people. It was
like the Summerfest, but just a regular shopping area. They were both
really cool, and one wants to keep meeting. He just doesn't think his
parents will approve. So we'll have to work on that as well. Once 3:30
hit, we had no success whatsoever. No more people added. We went to a
few different areas and no one wanted to talk. An hour of tracting
with no success. An hour of finding less actives with no success. And
my box lid broke. It was a rough night.
Church was a lot of fun. I met a guy in the ward whose fuyin zhanglao
has the same surname as me. My surname is rare and a little weird. So
I was really happy to know there was another one once upon a time. And
there really isn't a good translation for fuyin zhanglao. Direct
translation is Gospel Elder, which means the Elder that taught and
baptized you. None of us know a good way of saying that in English. We
were surprised to have 3 people come to church. One was the guy that
wanted to Bible bash. And then the other 2 were friends that Elder
Hoopes found playing basketball over a week ago. They all just showed
up right before Sacrament meeting started. It was pretty cool. Last
night was ok, we visited a long term investigator and a less active
that came to church that day. He has a really hard home life and does
his best. We read 2 Nephi 4 with him and talked through Nephi's
experience. He interpreted it so well and the Spirit was so strong. He
committed to read everyday again and we're going to meet up with him
later this week.
Today I really dove into 2 Nephi 9 and really dissected it verse by
verse. It's so good! We're planning on meeting with the Lin guy
(what's the purpose of life), and are going to be going through the
Plan of Salvation. So that'll be really fun!
About me, my arms are extremely tan, I think I've gained about 8
pounds of muscle (I got a good workout going), and my hairline is
receding. I'm convinced. And that's my week! I love you all! I can't
wait to tell you about this coming week! I'm loving it here. Please
continue to write and let me know what's going on with your lives!
Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us.
Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter
This past week has been so intense! To start off, it's a lot hotter
here. Like, hot. I down a ton of water each day and I'm so drained at
the end of the day. Here's a little bit about my area. I'm over Anping
chu, Zhongxi chu, and Nan chu. Those are the districts of the city.
It's pretty much the west/middle/south part of Tainan. It's so cool
here! We have the ocean right there and there's a huge beach. Our
apartment is on the 16th floor. It's just us two and it's a pretty
roomy place. We live right in front of a river, and we have a sweet
view of the city. There aren't any mountains, but there are plenty of
tall buildings. The city is way packed! It's what you imagine when you
think of an asian city. It's just filled with people.
My district is really cool. We have the zone leaders and the sisters.
They're all really sweet. We have fun and learn a lot! Our building
has 2 wards, both starting around the same time. The zone leaders go
to the other one, and the sisters split up and cover both. Our ward
has about 80 people each week. They're all so friendly!
When I first got here, Elder Hoopes said we're pretty much starting
from scratch because almost everyone he had the week before either
never answered their phone, or weren't progressing at all. And 7 of
them dropped him in the same day. That's rough. So we had 3
investigators and a few long term investigators that struggle to
progress, but still want to learn more. It was hard, but fun work to
find new people. We actually had a self contact that wanted to know
the difference between his church and ours. And he set up for the same
day! That was lucky. But he doesn't really want to accept any truth.
He likes to Bible bash more and try to prove us wrong.
On Wednesday we had a district english procelyting. It was really fun
going to this HUGE intersection and passing out flyers whenever there
was a red light. Sooo many scooters... English was a lot of fun. I'm
over the advanced class again, which is supposed to be conversation,
and they don't like to talk. I've never been so outgoing in my life,
trying to get people to talk. They're all really cool though and start
asking a ton of questions if I say something they don't understand.
Afterwards there was a guy in the beginner class that had some
interest in the gospel! Elder Hoopes had two guys in his class as
well. So we split up and I got to teach this guy. He was so excited to
learn more. I taught him about prayer and had my peike bear his
testimony on prayer. We had the guy say his first prayer and loved it.
When I invited him to pray daily, he was so willing and was nearly
bouncing around. It was so great!
Thursday was really great as we got to travel further south and visit
a less active member, as well as go along the coast and visit another
less active member. They're both really sweet. Very friendly. And one
of them came to church! That night we had an absolutely AMAZING lesson
with another guy that came to english class the night before. He's
just finishing up with college and wants to know the meaning of life.
GOLDEN! He had our little pamphlet thing that we hand out to everyone
and read the back page, which has questions of the soul and chapters
in the Book of Mormon to answer them. We introduced him to the Book of
Mormon and picked out a few questions that he was pondering. Elder
Hoopes and I would take turns finding scriptures in the chapter that
can help him understand, and he was completely mind blown. We gave him
a Book of Mormon and he said he will for sure read it. We then brought
up baptism and invited him to be baptized, and the Spirit was just
swirling around us! He very happily said yes and committed to the
soonest date possible. So sweet! Sadly it was dropped because he had a
family thing and had to go to it instead of church. But he kept
calling us to apologize and wants to continue meeting. That's a good
sign. We're meeting with him tonight!
Friday was pretty weird. We had weekly planning as usual, and set off.
After contacting a ton of people and finding some really great people
that set up for later, we tracted in this pretty creepy back alley.
Like the cats were making that scary cat noise, there was a mysterious
water drip coming from nowhere, and there was a house with an open
doorway and no light inside. It was creepy. And no success... We
headed more south through a cemetery to find some less active members
and ended up sitting with a guy we met on the street. He's really
humble and loved hearing about the restoration and hope. He didn't
make it to church like he said, but I hope we get to meet with him
again.
Saturday started really good, and ended really bad. Two people that we
contacted into the day before set up to meet on Saturday and both made
it. And it just so happened that the place for meeting both of them
was in the same area that was completely packed full of people. It was
like the Summerfest, but just a regular shopping area. They were both
really cool, and one wants to keep meeting. He just doesn't think his
parents will approve. So we'll have to work on that as well. Once 3:30
hit, we had no success whatsoever. No more people added. We went to a
few different areas and no one wanted to talk. An hour of tracting
with no success. An hour of finding less actives with no success. And
my box lid broke. It was a rough night.
Church was a lot of fun. I met a guy in the ward whose fuyin zhanglao
has the same surname as me. My surname is rare and a little weird. So
I was really happy to know there was another one once upon a time. And
there really isn't a good translation for fuyin zhanglao. Direct
translation is Gospel Elder, which means the Elder that taught and
baptized you. None of us know a good way of saying that in English. We
were surprised to have 3 people come to church. One was the guy that
wanted to Bible bash. And then the other 2 were friends that Elder
Hoopes found playing basketball over a week ago. They all just showed
up right before Sacrament meeting started. It was pretty cool. Last
night was ok, we visited a long term investigator and a less active
that came to church that day. He has a really hard home life and does
his best. We read 2 Nephi 4 with him and talked through Nephi's
experience. He interpreted it so well and the Spirit was so strong. He
committed to read everyday again and we're going to meet up with him
later this week.
Today I really dove into 2 Nephi 9 and really dissected it verse by
verse. It's so good! We're planning on meeting with the Lin guy
(what's the purpose of life), and are going to be going through the
Plan of Salvation. So that'll be really fun!
About me, my arms are extremely tan, I think I've gained about 8
pounds of muscle (I got a good workout going), and my hairline is
receding. I'm convinced. And that's my week! I love you all! I can't
wait to tell you about this coming week! I'm loving it here. Please
continue to write and let me know what's going on with your lives!
Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us.
Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter
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