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
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