Taiwan Week 42: The Most Crazy Transfer Ever

Dear friends and family,

So many changes have been made this past week. Somehow mysteriously, both Elder Bardsley and Elder Hanset were moved out of their area and two new missionaries have moved in. That has never happened before. Their area is really growing, and now it's in the hands of two new, but really sweet, missionaries, Elder Taylor and Elder Vandiford. Elder Taylor was training in Nantou zone in Puli when I got on island so I've known him since I got island. And Elder Vandiford was just in our neighboring zone of Zhanghua and is now on his 4th transfer. It was pretty rough watching half our district leave, but I'm also really excited for this new transfer.

Last week we had our Zone Training Meeting in Nantou. We talked about working with the ward. That is something we really love and need to do, and I guess the rest of the zone is wanting too. So we had some really great training on effective ways to work with members sitting with investigators at church. Then we also had a member come from Taizhong and talk about a really effective way to use the ward list. I was so happy to see that it's pretty similar to the way I've been using it! We then had a sweet lesson at McDonald's! He was a sweet referral contacted that has met with missionaries for a while. We're not sure how much interest in baptism he has, but we can keep working with him! We also had a sweet lesson with Jack later that night. He has such a desire to get baptized. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was feeling the truth of it so much. I'm really excited for him.

Wednesday was all over the place. We were struggling because our lessons were rescheduling so much. And then it all came down to our English party. We weren't prepared. Our class has been slowly decreasing the past few weeks with a low of 8 because of various holidays and stuff. So we didn't think many people were going to show up. Then out of nowhere, we had 33 people come, 11 new, mostly families. It was so cool. They all had a good time and want to come back! I'm so excited. We're hoping to increase that to 40 this week!

Thursday we had a sweet EARTHQUAKE during weekly planning! Our building was swaying a lot with a bit of rumbling as well. It was pretty fun. I think it was Elder Lathen's first EARTHQUAKE. And I guess it was pretty big since it was even felt at the very south point of the island too. That's pretty cool. I love them so much.   We then had a split where I sat with a less active and Elder Lathen and a member, Huang Yi Wei, sat with a new investigator. He has a lot of desire as well. He has a lot of questions that I feel like I've never had to answer before. So I'm so glad we had a peike there.

Friday we had a sudden exchange with the zone leaders. They were passing off Elder Fiso on Phase 1 in Nantou and they heard Elder Lathen hadn't fully passed it off yet. And they wanted to see how ok Elder Lathen would be leading in our area in the chance that I move. So they put together an exchange. I went to Caotun with Elder Larson. While Elder Larson was passing off Elder Fiso, I was with Elder Nickell in a room making a ton of calls to get new investigators. Then they had a less active come for a lesson and I remembered him from when I was serving there! So it was pretty cool to visit with him. I then took Elder Larson to a less active that he didn't know about in their area that I had visited before when I was there. It was really cool to see him and his wife again. Elder Larson felt a good connection with them as well and really want to work with them some more. The whole night was really great and full family adding miracles! Even one that stopped investigating with the zone leaders while I was there because of scheduling problems. But they now have time and were really happy to set up again! And Elder Larson and I found out that we have probably 50+ mutual friends because he lives right by the Riverwoods! Super Crazy!

Saturday we traveled out to find some formers and ended up meeting with their aunt and uncle. They have interest too! So many families all of a sudden! We exchanged back and had a few great lessons with some investigators, one of them being the new one from a few days before. The bishop peike'd and ended up sharing everything that this guy needed. I was in shock. My companion was in shock. Our investigator was in shock. It was shocking. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson. In the end, our bishop kind of plainly said "you need to get baptized." And our investigator pretty convinced was like "ok". Mind blowing.

Sunday was pretty nice and all over the place. During Sacrament meeting, a sister I had never seen before gave me a note saying she's a member in Taibei and she needed my help in the hallway with her brother that isn't a member yet. So I grabbed Huang Yi Wei and we went downstairs and met him. His health hasn't been well lately and they told him about Priesthood blessings. So he wanted a blessing. We gave him one and he said it was absolutely amazing. It was such a great experience. I hope we get to meet him again.    That night we had FHE and everyone said their goodbyes to Elders Hanset and Bardsley.

Today we were helping them get all their stuff ready to go and they gave all their stuff to us. A lot of exhanging companions was done at the train station, and now we're here! Every single companionship changed in the zone except for ours. This transfer is one of the biggest in a long time because so many missionaries are coming on, but hardly anyone is leaving. So there has been a lot of moving around to get ready to train. This transfer is only 3 weeks long. In 3 weeks, 24 new missionaries are coming on. And then another semi large group comes again 6 weeks after that. There will be a lot of people training. It'll be exciting to see what's going to happen in the next month!

This is going to be my 4th transfer here in Yuanlin. It'll technically only be 3.5 because this one is short. But I'm excited!  I love you all! I feel like this email is so long. This week has been so epic, I can't capture it in this email. And the next 3 weeks are so jam packed with stuff. If you have any questions, write me a letter! Until next week!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 41: And That is Why I Don't Insult Taxi Drivers

Dear family and friends,

This week is the last week of the transfer. 5 new missionaries come on this week, and then we have that weird mini transfer 3 weeks later that gets us in line for the new return dates; in which 24 new missionaries are arriving. So by the end of this month, I don't even know what's gonna happen! This past week has been so great for stabilizing our new investigators! I'm so happy and excited for a few of our investigators. Each day had some great turnouts that just made this area jump to progressing.

Tuesday we had zone leader exchanges. Elder White came out here with me. In my opinion, he's known for being super sincere. And I was blown away. We got to meet with Ken, one of our new investigators that was actually referred to us by Elder White. He felt the need to continue investigating because Elder White was so sincere when he contacted him on the street in their area. So Elder White was extremely happy to see him again. We had only met with him once before, and that was at church a few days before then, and he didn't want to accept a Book of Mormon. But then during our lesson, we emphasized the purpose of the Book of Mormon in relation to he needs. He was previously part of another Christian church. After we shared a bit about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, he said "I think the reason why I failed in my last church was so I could come across and be able to accept this book." So good right?! It was also in English. He's fluent in English. He wants to go slowly and isn't quite willing to accept a goal yet, but he came to church yesterday and loved it all. We even had a peike that used to be part of another Christian church that was able to help him a lot.    The rest of the night was pretty rough, and Elder White said "It's my fault. I lost my cool at a taxi driver."

The following day was pretty rough because we had to travel to Caotun to switch back, and while waiting for my companion and Elder Larson to meet us at the bus stop, the last bus for an hour and a half drove away. So after we switched back, Elder Lathen and I were stuck in Caotun for over an hour. So we didn't get to do much before English that night. Which was also pretty rough. Not a whole lot of people showed up. It was pretty slow, but we're getting ready for our party this week! It'll be a lot of fun.

Thursday we spent our day in Tianzhong. Elder Lathen and I were discussing the possibility of me moving next week and the fact that he hasn't gotten to know the area too well because of all our finding/adding weeks. So we decided to go out to each of our secondary areas and do all we can there for a day to get new investigators and get him a little more tight with the area. We were able to meet with two less active members out there. One was Lin zi wei. He just recently dropped off from being a recent convert. We haven't been able to meet with him in a while. We went over some of the war chapters in Alma and he expressed great interest. So we're going to start using that to get his interest in this gospel again! Haha.  We then got to meet an older guy that put himself in a retirement home because it's more convenient and while he's there, he feels younger because everyone else is older than him. Do what you gotta do! He's really funny though. He has a hard time coming to church because of consistent morning headaches. I want to find ways to help him a bit more. I just don't know how to help that.

Friday we had district leader exchanges! We all met up for lunch after weekly planning at Feed Me with Peja and ate a really filling lunch. Elder Bardsley then came with me to my area and Elder Lathen went with Elder Hanset. Then we had a great time doing Sacrament Powerboarding. Then we had to hurry out to Angus Beef's house for ward correlation meeting. He's so sweet. He's got some really sweet advice and ideas to help this ward in missionary work. His mom then fed us dinner. We then sped back to the church to meet one of the other Elders' investigating families. Elder Hanset would've taught it since he's the senior in his area at the time, but he had never met them because of splits every single time and didn't feel comfortable. So we did it. It was pretty epic because we didn't know which area they lived in. They could've very quickly become our investigators because we knew they lived right around the border. They're such a great family. I just started feeling this huge love for them and they have a lot of potential. After the lesson, we called up Elder Hanset and asked for their address on their contact card. He gave it to us and we sped off to see if it was on our side of the border or theirs. It was theirs. I'm so excited for them. Elder Bardsley is so excited to teach a family. They even came to church yesterday.

Saturday we biked out to Tianwei to meet with our military locked investigator. Once we got there, he said he had no time and thought we had rescheduled for the following week. That was a heart breaker. So we were pretty bummed. But then we got back and the Sisters had a baptism and we had an added investigator coming! He's so sweet. He's a senior in high school, met with missionaries a few years before, in a rock band, and break dances, and has a lot of interest! He liked the baptism. I'm really excited to keep working with him.

Sunday was really good. Another student contacted on the street came to church and liked it. All our teachers thought he was sweet too because he had a ton of good questions and thought of cool ways to understand gospel principles. Him, Ken, and Zhang all came and liked church a lot. We then got to meet with an investigator that is Christian. Before I left, I thought teaching Buddhist and Taoist people would be hard, but now it's teaching other Christians that are tough. We got to see his son again that used to be an investigator but then lost all time because of work and school. But now his schedule has changed and has time again. So we get to meet with both of them now! We met with the dad earlier in the week and did a little bit of expectation setting again. And it wrapped into this time as we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon working with the Bible. His understanding skyrocketed and he said it'll take time, but he thinks he'll be able to make the change! So good.

And that's my week in a bundle! It was so great! I learned a lot. I love moving around and getting to experience new areas, but now that we have some really good investigators, I don't know how I feel about maybe moving! That just shows that if you develop a love for the people, you'll love wherever you go and won't want to leave. But you gotta follow the call!  I love you all! I miss you all! Today is actually my year mark until my estimated release date... Kinda weird. It hit me as I was resetting a few of my watch dates (I do have 6 watches after all. Gotta love cheap things!). Let's see where this next year takes me!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 40: Power Week

Dear friends and family,

I have never been so happy for preparation day. It has been such a crazy week. We had what we call POWER WEEK! There is a certain mission everyday and we have to do all we can to accomplish the mission. I touched on it a little bit last week.

Wednesday was a really amazing relaxing day because I got to go to the temple! It was a great 3 hour ride to Taibei. Our zone and the Zhanghua zone. One Elder that is about to go home is really good at doing voice impressions and we had fun listening to that for a while. The temple was absolutely amazing, as usual! I love just being able to learn and feel the Spirit that's inside the temple. I got to do a few things in Chinese. That was pretty sweet. I think next time I'm going full Chinese. While we were taking pictures around the temple grounds, I got to see an Elder that I was with in the MTC. He's serving in that area. It was really sweet. And then the ride home was pretty exhausting. We had already been awake for 12 hours and still had 7 more to go.

We had English class right after that preparation day ended. For some reason, it was pretty crazy. I'm the doorman, so I'm out in the hall calling old English students and welcoming new students with my recent convert, Zhu Zhang Qi. Then an awesome guy in our ward said he needed help giving a lady a blessing, so I ran and did that. Then once I came back, a ton of new people showed up and I had to get them all registered. Then as it was coming to a close, I was taking inventory and we turned out to be 2 books short. So that became a problem. It was just a little more hectic than I thought.

Thursday was to get 4 new investigators with goals. So we were running around and had a hard time finding people, but we were able to find a really sweet family at a 7 that was really nice. Then we got extremely lost as we had to go into one of the other Elders' secondary areas to meet with our new ward mission leader at his family's shop. We got so turned around and ended up getting lost in the middle of some rice fields. So I saw this really thin stretch of dirt that goes between the fields. So I turned to Elder Lathen and said "don't fall in!" It was an epic off roading experience. Our new mission leader is really sweet. He was an assistant in the Taibei mission. His English name is Angus. So Chinese speakers call him Niurou. Which is Chinese for beef/steak. So Elder Bardsley translated it back into english that way and now we all call him Angus beef. He's really good and getting involved in missionary work.

Friday was getting 20 people confirmed for church. That was a toughy. But we had a hard day of adding new people and calling as many people as possible. We hit it right as we were heading back to the apartment that night.

Saturday was an annoying but amazing day in the end! We set up with a less active that morning that took a long time to get to the church. In the end, we never met with him, but the other Elders met with him at the train station. We had to prepare the water for the Sisters' baptism that night and I broke the master key to the church! None of the other companionships have a key that can do what my key can do, and I snapped it in the door to the baptismal font. It was so sad. But then we met with a really amazing investigator that is so golden! He's already read the entire Book of Mormon and was really close to getting baptized long ago. It was just a Word of Wisdom problem that stopped him. We met him on the street and he was beyond willing to meet. He now has a goal for March 16th.   We then had a double baptism. One of our Recent Converts that dropped off last month baptized his wife, and a 25 year old girl. They both have really strong testimonies.

Sunday at church was really amazing. A contacted referral came to church and absolutely loved it. He said when the Elders contacted him on the street, he felt so amazing. And it was then backed up at church during Sacrament meeting. I'm so glad we got to contact him. He's golden!

Well that was my week. It was a really intense week. We're all so exhausted. I had so much fun! I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Keep up the smiling faces! I know that the Lord loves each and every one of us.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 39: No Really, I'm Full

Dear family and friends,

This past week has been so all over the place. Chinese New Year celebrations beat out any of our American holidays, and I was only able to see it in a pretty rural area. I can't even imagine what the cities were like. And everyone is extremely friendly during the Holidays. It was like Christmas in February. And our ward has made a sign up list to have all us missionaries over for meals. Our ward has gone all out. Usually it's great to have a few meals on the week of the new year, but my ward has signed up to feed us all the way to the end of February. And they cook a lot. They just want you to eat and eat. It's all so good, but I need to be careful. I feel so out of shape now. I'm so full!

Tuesday we were taken to this huge Asian style ranch that a stake president in Taibei owns. He's the stake president of one of the sister missionaries in my district and his family's house is down here in my area. It was so gorgeous. They had so many extended family there. And a few of them had interest in our church. One of them actually went to BYU for a year. So he referred them to us. I'm so excited for them to start learning about the gospel! And then I so clumsily broke my master key to the church. None of the other companionships have a key this powerful. It gets into everything. And I broke it! It wasn't entirely my fault though. The door is pretty hard to get open.

Wednesday we got to go to Nantou for interviews. It was a lot of fun. But a few companionships heard wrong and ended up going to Taizhong. So we had to wait for them for a while. It was awesome. We were all just chilling on couches making calls to every number we can get our hands on. And President Bishop answered all my inner questions so well! He has truly been called by God to direct this mission.   Because we had to wait for a while, the training that followed interviews didn't end until late. So we had to take a taxi, which is expensive (in Taiwan terms. Very cheap compared to America), to make it back in time for our English class. Which only had 4 people because of the new year.

Thursday we had a good day of finding. We've been trying to find a bunch of new ways to find. And magically and a 7 (7-11) there was a group of guys playing uno. Everyone in Taiwan loves that game. So I joined in and beat them as we talked about the gospel. That just sounded so proud. They all thought it was funny that I kept winning. They all ended up having a lot of interest. I'm really excited to meet with them again!

Friday we did exchanges and Elder Hanset got to come with me. We had a lot of fun and got a lot done. We even got to visit an investigator that's really hard to meet with. He's slowly coming along. One of our investigators and his wife who is a member took all of us out to eat that night. It was a ton of fun. They're so cute together and we all were having a great time. We got to meet with him the next day and he's slowly coming along. Just a little more study and prayer.

Saturday we had a miracle as a kid self came to the church as we were there with another investigator. He has a lot of interest and we were able to meet with him as well. He just flat out said he wants to become Christian. So good! Then that night we had a baptism of a really old lady. Her kids and grandkids are members. It was all in Taiwanese because that's all she understands. So interesting.

Sunday all of our slowly progressing investigators came to church and one of them brought their wife! It was so great! Then that whole day was bouncing back and forth between members houses with investigators. It was such an epic day.

Monday we had mission tour. The whole mission got together and Elder Evans from the church mission department came out here. It was a really good meeting on our purpose. It's those meetings that get you all pumped to get out there! And that's good because this week is POWER WEEK!!! Always on the run. Always moving. And a mission to accomplish every day. That day was FHE with 3 investigators. We ended up getting a super amazing new investigator that we just called up and he came to a members house for dinner.

Yesterday we had power Book of Mormon day. 15 Book of Mormons given away and a set up time to talk about it more on a later date. We also got to go around with our Assistant Elder Haag. It was so good. He's so epic. We were able to get it all done and have a really epic day. I'm exhausted. Also mostly because It's 5:00 am And we're about to go to the temple! I'm so excited! I love the temple!

I love you all! I'll keep you all in my prayers. Have an amazing week. Be safe.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter