Dear friends and family,
Well I just ate as much steak and pork as my body could handle for
an American equivalent of 12 dollars. That's amazing! And we get to make
it ourselves. We pretty much had a big missionary lunch today with half
our zone and half of the Zhanghua zone. It was a lot of fun. I'm so
full! We also bought district scarves because it's getting pretty cold
now.
Last week I got to go on a lot of exchanges. Tuesday I got to
exchange with Elder Fiala, my district leader. It was really great. I
got to meet a few of their investigators and less actives. It was
interesting that most of them are really trying to overcome a Word of
Wisdom problem. I enjoyed getting to help them find faith and courage to
overcome what they need to overcome. Their area has a lot more people
than mine. We're in the same city. It's just split, so we have most of
the houses and they have a lot of businesses. I had a lot of fun though
and learned a lot.
Wednesday night we switched back and taught our English class. For
some weird reason our class only had women in it. Where did all the men
go? They had a lot of really interesting questions though. I taught them
tongue twisters because that would really help them with pronunciation
differences. They got really good. We also got to watch the movie on
President Monson's life and calling as the prophet because the sisters
have a really progressing investigator in our class and wanted us to
watch it. I love that movie.
Thursday was really great! We struggled on lessons, but our big
lesson was that night with Zhu dixiong. We taught the law of chastity
and had the bishop peike. He did a really great job talking about the
importance of chastity and explained the benefits as a family. It was
great because his really cute 3 year old son was playing during the
lesson and served as a great example! Zhu dixiong had his baptismal
interview right after and passed! He's getting baptized this Saturday!
I'm so excited!
Friday we had such an amazing Mission Tour Conference. Elder Larry
Wilson, of the Seventy, came to speak to us. His wife did a lot of
focusing on teaching about the Book of Mormon with understanding. It was
really great to learn better ways to help investigators better
understand the scriptures. Elder Wilson talked about Preach My Gospel
and finding the diamonds hidden inside to better missionary work. He
emphasized on a part about staying in contact with our recent converts
after we leave the area and when we go home. He shared a few really
amazing stories that occurred in these past few years that came from a
result of some of the people he baptized on his mission. It was really
great. It came in handy during the conference for me as well! While we
were eating lunch, Song dixiong in Nantou called Elder Nickel to cancel
their appointment that night, and I got to talk to him for a few
minutes! He was so excited to hear my voice. I got to ask him how him
and his wife are. (If you don't remember, she's the pregnant lady that
we taught and baptized. Who is actually no longer pregnant, but now has
an adorable 2 month old baby!). They're all doing really well.
After the conference, I got to go on exchanges with Elder Bennett,
my zone leader, back to my old area! Well half of it. The area has
changed a bit since I was there, so half of my old area is in the Zone
leaders area now. It was really great. I got to visit a lot of
investigators that I met on exchanges back when I lived there. I also
got to visit the recent convert of theirs that I got to baptize my 3rd
day on island. He remembered me and we had a great reunion. The zone
leaders are actually working with his siblings to get them to be
baptized as well. They like coming to church, there's just a little
parental opposition at the moment. It was a lot of fun getting to work
with the zone leader's investigators. I remember all of them really well
from before. I also got to spend the night in my old apartment! I was
buzzing with memories. It's funny because That was my old area, and my
area now is Elder Bennett's old area. So we were updating each other a
lot on our areas, former investigators, and recent converts. It was
really great. I also got to attend their ward correlation meeting
on Saturday. All those who attended remembered me. Their ward is doing
really great with investigators right now!
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday was really cold and rainy. I
was so cold. By night time yesterday, I was fearing I was getting sick.
But it went away with sleep. Last night we also had a combined yuanling
1st and 2nd ward FHE. The other Elders did the spiritual share. It was
the push-ups for candy... haha! Elder Hanset did the push-ups. He's on
his 2nd move call of being trained. It still is a great lesson that
impacts all those who watch. The whole meeting was great and a great way
to establish relations with the ward.
And you already heard about today. It was a great week! I didn't
really do much in my own area last week. I was exchanging too much! But
our area is doing really great though. I miss you all! Thank you for all
the great letters and encouragement. This week is Thanksgiving. I'm so
thankful for family. I love my family so much. I love how much the
gospel blesses my family. I didn't know just how much until I got out
here. Now I'm so blessed to see this gospel bless other families.
Families can be together forever!
Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter
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