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
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