Taiwan Week 16: Where Is Everybody?

Dear family and friends,

Well I survived another week! Haha. It's really been a pretty tough week. We've been struggling to find new investigators, and I've gotten a little sick as well. It started up last Tuesday when I started to lose my voice (that's twice on my mission so far!) and my stomach was in a lot of pain.

We had a really amazing Combined District Training Meeting that day. It was so cool! We each got to share an experience about using the Book of Mormon to help an investigator progress. As each story was shared, we got to take a big block and stack them up to create the arch. As the arch got taller, it starts to lean in towards where the keystone needs to be. Elder Stark and I were holding the blocks in place, and it started to get hard to hold them up. Once everyone was done sharing, President Bishop grabbed the keystone and put it in place. And then the arch held itself up! That just shows how important the Book of Mormon is in knowing this is Christ's true and living church. It was a lot of fun.

Wednesday I was feeling even worse, I took President Bishop's advice and started eating a lot more fruit. Fruit has gotten pretty expensive because we had a few pretty intense typhoons in the past few weeks. It only did a lot of damage in the southern most parts of Taiwan though. But all the fruit prices have gone way up. After a rough day of trying to find people, we had a good night at English class. My class is finally starting to warm up a bit and talk more. They're starting to like me! It's a lot of fun.

Thursday was really sweet because we got to go on Assistant exchanges. Elder Turk came around with us and Elder Gulas went around with the Zone leaders. Our area was Elder Turk's first area. And he's about to go home. So we had a lot of fun visiting a lot of his recent converts. We did a TON of contacting too. That always happens on Assistant exchanges. It was sweet! We wanted to focus on talking to EVERYONE but still making it to our lessons on time. Which we did a good job.

Friday and Saturday... Those were the rough days... Friday was pretty hard with little to no success. So we made Saturday our hardcore finding day. But it was unbearably hot and no one wanted to talk to us. So we went to our next planned area and there was almost no one there. The people that were there completely shot us down. The same thing happened in the next two areas we tried. And every single person that would listen to us became a referral. It was a rough day. We had a pity dinner.

Sunday was SO great though! It was such a great fast and testimony meeting. At the start of the meeting, the bishop got up and explained to everyone that was experiencing a fast and testimony meeting for the first time what is the purpose of a testimony meeting. All in Chinese, he said he welcomes all investigators to come up and bear their testimony too if they want. Kevin leans over to me and asks "what's an investigator?" I said "anyone who is meeting with the missionaries and is learning about our church. So, you. Welcome!" And he just starts laughing. He's so great! We met with him that night as well as a few other times last week. He has accepted everything and is loving the Book of Mormon. His parents came up from Gaoxiong a few days ago and surprised him. He told them all about the church and how he wants to get baptized. They didn't have an "opposing" kind of attitude. They just wondered if maybe he's moving too fast. So he himself asked us if he could have an interview with the bishop to talk about it! He really wants to be sure and he's willing to do anything to find out. So good!

And that's my week! It was pretty hard and trying. But I learned a lot. Elder Hoopes and I have dedicated this week to finding new investigators. My voice is still recovering. It was EXTREMELY low the past few days. Lower than I've ever heard my voice go before. It was pretty sweet. But it's coming to an end.

I love you all! Thanks for the love and support in your prayers and letters! Always remember to keep the Book of Mormon close to you in your life. It's such a life saver! Until next week!

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter\