Taiwan Week 48: Are We There Yet?

Dear family and friends,

It was a pretty crazy week. We had a few activities that we knew were going to take away a lot of our time, so we had to go crazy on the days that we had time.

Tuesday we biked super fast out to a college an hour away and found two really cool guys in a row that wanted to sit with us and learn more. It was really cool, and the 2nd guy was just around the corner from the first. It was cool. During the 1st guy, a ton of sirens started going off. It was super loud and no one was freaking out. I was way confused. I then got a call from the zone leaders, who also had sirens going off where they were, and they said they do this yearly drill to practice the police preparedness just in case China invades. Super funny. So all the streets were shut down and had policemen lining every intersection. It was really cool.  After all the biking, we were super tired while doing English proselyting. I had no energy at all. But that night we went by the B-ball court to find some new investigators. I sat with this cool guy that just seemed really relieved to be talking to me. He does the cool traditional puppet shows. Cool guy.

Wednesday was the long day. We had to get up at 5:00 to get on a bus to Zhanghua. From there we took an hour and a half train to Jiayi for Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun. Elder Allen said he got to do assistant exchanges with Nantou a week before and got to see all our recent converts. But my first family baptized that I got to help set a temple goal with said they're moving to China. And they're now already there. Super depressed. But I have their email address!   The conference was really good. We talked about how to keep missionary work exciting everyday so it doesn't feel the same everyday. We also got a new Taiwan Taizhong mission clarifications book that goes a little more into detail from the missionary handbook on what is legal and allowed in our mission.

After the conference, I had a district leader meeting that made it so we had to take a later train than the rest of the missionaries. So we're walking with some other companionships in our zone that are district leaders and we realize that we'll have no time to eat before English class. So we stop at the Macker's (McDonald's) on the way to get food for the train. Elder Greer ordered an apple pie that took FOREVER to cook. We weren't sure why, but it made it so we had to sprint to the train station. We barely made it. It was crazy. Then we had to take a bus from Zhanghua back to our area, so we were 45 minutes late to English and the other Elders had to start without us.

Thursday was super rough. We were let in by an old couple. They didn't have a whole lot of interest. And then their 95 year old mom was walking around outside, so they just went to take care of her. We biked forever out to Erling just for our lessons to fall through, so we biked back. It was a long day.  Friday was the same. It was raining, and no one wanted to talk. It was rough.

Saturday we had to bike out to our furthest area because the other Elders called and set up a less active sister and then realized she lived in our area. But she really wanted to meet with us and didn't want to change locations. So all in all, we biked about 3.5 hours to her house in the rain. Our keisters were sore! (is that how you spell it?) And it was quite the experience. Actually, it was the WEIRDEST lesson ever. Mom, write this down and I'll tell you all when I get home: Dacheng, LA lady, power. Then we had to bike back, which felt like forever as the sun was going down and the wind was blowing against us. We had two amazing lessons with some part member families though! One lady we're working with that is less active. We're trying to help her come back to church and help her 10 year old daughter get baptized. The girl loves church, but her mom has only taken her once. After talking to her for a bit, she just opened up about what's keeping her from coming. We also met with our RC and her parents who have been investigating as long as our RC. Her mom also opened up about why she won't come to church.

Sunday we see the less active with her two daughters walk into to Church! It was sooo great! Then we get a call from our RC saying her whole family is coming to church! After Sacrament meeting, the mom said that a ton of her questions were answered in that meeting. I was so happy! Then last night we were seriously lost in the middle of the rice fields. It was insane.

And that was my week! We got permission from President Bishop to take a bus to Yuanlin today and eat at Shitou with Elder James and Lathen. My investigator there, Jack, got baptized last Saturday! Super happy. So we're about to head out.

I love you all! Keep your chin up! Keep smiling. The Lord loves each and every one of us! Always trust in His guidance!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

 

Taiwan Week 47: I Love Conference!

Dear family and friends,

Sorry, this letter might be a little shorter. I got a letter from an RC in Tainan and trying to reply in Chinese is super hard. 10 minutes, 11 characters typed. I really need to practice the way they type here.

So this last week has been super great! It's been raining so much all week. I've been way cold all week. Last Tuesday we went out to Zhanghua for zone training meeting. It was pretty cool seeing everyone in the zone. Especially since we got lost trying to get to the chapel. It was the first time any of us had been to the Zhanghua chapel before. It was a great conference though! All on the doctrine of numbers and key indicators.

Right after, I got to go on zone leader exchanges with Elder Teng (who trained Elder Fiso), while Elder Larson went with Elder Greer to Xihu. Right as the exchange started, it started pouring. It hasn't poured that hard since summer last year. It was coming down hard. Even with our rain gear, we were soaked. So we're riding around the streets looking for new investigators, completely soaked, my now soaked toe that had surgery the day before. It was a great day. We had some really great lessons and finding experiences.

Wednesday we switched back in the late afternoon and did some English Procelyting until dinner and English class. I'm super surprised at how many teenagers there are compared to adults at our English class. I've never had it before. It's so much fun working with them. Elder Zhu and I have a fun time teaching. To help them practice their English conversation and share about the importance of our Agency, we had Elder Zhu be completely under the classes control. Everything they said, he said. Everything they told him to do, he would do. And his goal was to get me to go play Frisbee on the beach. And based on how well they did it, I could either want to go, or be really creeped out. They struggled... It was so funny! But it got them to see how important it is that we can choose for ourselves because of agency.

Thursday we went out to Erlin to do some finding. It was a hard day. The people we wanted to visit weren't there. No one was on the streets, and tracting didn't quite work either. And it was raining again. By the end of the day, we were back in Xihu and went to visit our recent convert whose mom is also investigating the church.We're trying our best to work with her to get her to pray for an answer. If she can do that and come to church with her daughter, she'd know it's true. The whole family is super amazing and willing to let us work with them.

Friday was pretty rough too. We had a lot of finding time and because of rain, no one was willing to meet. But Saturday we had a really great day. Elder Greer's recent convert from Taizhong came and and had breakfast with us and a member family. Then we met a lot of willing people on the streets. It was an amazing morning and afternoon of finding. From 2:00-9:00 we had general conference. It was super amazing! I love conference so much. There were so many talks that stood out to me. Elder Greer and I watched it in the Clerks office in English. It was weird being so far away from everyone else. But it was a great conference.

Sunday was also really great with conference in the morning! Then while tracting last night, we had willing people house after house. They let us in or set up other times to meet. It was so cool. The week ended pretty great.

I love you all so much! I love that we have a living prophet to guide us nowadays. I love the teachings and guidance we received! Send me a letter of your favorite talk and why!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 46: Turn Right At The Rice Field, And Then Left At The Rice Field

Dear family and friends,

So I got my package, but I'm trying to get rid of it as fast as possible so I can keep my diet going. It's been a very painful week as I already finished a bag of Reeces and the chocolate eggs. Elder Greer and I both got our Easter Packages on Tuesday and we both were very excited, but groaned at how much candy we had to get rid of before we could jump back onto our diet. Oh by the way mom, when I saw the already addressed envelope, my first thought was that you just wrote that just in case customs sent it back and didn't know where or something. So I ripped it up and threw it away. Then I read your letter and was like, oops... So I'll get another one filled out soon!

But last week was pretty exciting! We pretty much had to start over on finding new investigators. So we did a lot of finding. On Tuesday we had DTM. It was my first one as District leader, so I had a lot of fun conducting training. This week was on Faith, Diligence, and Obedience in finding . We all got pumped to go out and find, because the Xihu north Elders (I'm Xihu south) are trying to focus on finding right now too.

We then went to visit a recent convert that has gone less active. He has a ton of crazy vicious dogs. Elder Greer didn't tell me. He thought that it would be funny to let me go down this thin trail by his house where all the dogs were. I go in and one dog starts barking and snapping at me. I get a little freaked out and get past the next one, but the third one looked so vicious right in front of me. So I turn around and Elder Greer was basically on the ground laughing. I didn't have to go in because the recent convert will come out to us. So now I had to make it back past the first two crazy dogs. It was pretty funny. We sat with him and he brought up his son. We're hoping to meet with the son now and hopefully get the two to come to church together.   We then were taken out to eat by a family that just passed their year mark being baptized. Super cute kids. They're super amazing. The dad is the ward clerk.

Wednesday we contacted out to Erlin and got way lost. Elder Greer had only been here for 3 weeks before I got here, so we're pretty much discovering the area together. We made it out and tracted. The first house let us in. He's this really awesome cop. He was way curious how we're different than other Christian churches. His wife is Christian but not really active, so we're really hoping to meet with him again. He's really willing, but his time is super hard to work with.   That night we had English. Since we have a companionship of Americans and a companionship of Taiwanese, we split up to teach the two classes that we have here. It was way effective because we had someone that speaks perfect English and one that speaks perfect Chinese. We're really hoping to jump up the English Program here.

Thursday we got to head up to Zhanghua to do grave sweeping. The past few days have been a national holiday to go clean your ancestors graves. We go and clean the graves that haven't been taken care of in years, or have a no name tombstone. It was so much fun! The whole zone was there. And of course we chose the few graves that had the most weeds and trees grown in. It was beyond hard. But we had fun.   That night we were tracting the outskirts of Xihu and it started raining. The houses are pretty spaced apart. We were let in by the first house we tracted. It was this sweet Wei family. They youngest daughter, who is 18, was the only child home and wanted to take a picture with us. It was funny. The whole family is super sweet and is so curious how we're different from other Christian churches. So we had a sweet lesson with them.  Then the second house we tracted let us in too! But this house had nearly 20 people. Lots of extended family. They were also really curious how we were different. I've never had so many investigators curious about that. It's so weird! It was such a miraculous night.

Friday after weekly planning we went out to do some basketball contacting. That's pretty much asking to join some kids in playing basketball and getting their interest while playing. I haven't done it since I was with Elder Hoopes in Tainan. The only problem this time was that it was pouring rain. SOOO much rain. We found these brothers and played with them. Nothing like street ball in the rain. It was like a movie. They were pretty good too. We got their interest for English class. The rest of the day was hard because no one was out on the streets. But that night while we were about to head out to tract the outskirts again, a guy calls us over to this cafe. He tells us to sit with him and his wife and bought us hot chocolate and cheesecake. They were a sweet family that were about to head back to Zhanghua and wanted to know why we're still working even in the rain. There are just so many miracles out here. Everyone is curious!

Saturday we went out to Pitou and got extremely lost coming back! It was so bad. It's nothing but rice fields out here. We sat with a less active member that has two little daughters. The older daughter who is 10 seems to have a lot of interest. And we think the mom misses church as well. So we're really excited to work with them some more.   That night we had FHE. It's the first one this ward has done in a while. So we put it on. Everyone that came had so much fun. They're excited to do it some more.

Sunday was really sweet. The church here is really pretty. The ward is pretty big too. And everyone is willing to help out the missionaries. It was a good day at church. We don't get to watch Conference until this weekend.  Then last night we went with our ward mission leader to a lady's house. We tracted into her earlier in the week, so this was the first time we got to sit with her. She has two kids. Her husband has no interest at all, but she seems to be really willing to meet. Our ward mission leader helped out so much and she's going to bring her kids to English class this week! It was such a good week!

Yep, that's pretty much it. I love you all! I love getting to let you all know what I've been doing! Please keep writing me and keeping me updated! I love all the letters I've gotten. I love letters. Have a great week!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 45: Super Huge EARTHQUAKE!

Dear family and friends,

To start out, you'll never believe where I am right now!! I moved to Xihu in the Zhanghua zone. And ELDER SPENCER GREER is my new companion!! So epic. I just about lost it when I found out. I'm way excited to be out here. It's still the same stake as Yuanlin and Nantou. So if I'm still here for stake conference, I'll get to see a ton of old friends. But that's not until August I think. So we'll have to see. I'm also District leader and English leader. How did that happen?! I'm so excited, and also nervous. It's already a humbling experience.

As for last week, I had an interesting exchange from Monday night at 9:00 to Tuesday night. Since Elder Taylor was going trainer, he couldn't do a normal exchange on Tuesday to Wednesday because of a trainer meeting on Wednesday, and he was picking up his new companion on Friday. So we had a really sweet exchange. It was a lot of fun. We formed a new way of practice teaching that no one has ever heard of before. It's really sweet and gets you to see in the eyes of the missionary, investigator, and peike. It takes some getting used to, but it's really effective. We used it in teaching for DTM.

We met with Jack that night and really just talked a lot. We ate dinner with him right before. It really helped build our relationship with him. And he suddenly got really open with us. It helped us a lot to see where he is and we were able to set a new goal with him! It was a really great experience.

Wednesday we had a super huge EARTHQUAKE!! I just learned that it was a 6.1? Something like that. We were still in our apartment and it was so crazy. The biggest one I, and I think every missionary here, have ever experienced. We were being thrown around. Big things were getting tipped over and we lost our power for a bit. We had to make our emergency calls to make sure everyone was alright. Then we were told that if we had any cracks in our apartment, we had to get out because it might not be structurally sound. So that was quite the experience. A few missionary apartments are a under inspection now.   That night we had an interestingly small amount of English Students. I was really surprised. But there's testing and the annual sweeping of the graves all across Taiwan going on. So it was expected.

Thursday is a big blur to me right now. It was a good day though. We watched "On the Lord's Errand" with Jack. He liked it a lot and says he for sure believes that he's been called of God. Super good!

Friday was when the crazy started. Since Elder Taylor is now training (which by the way is Elder Wudrow that went to Timpanogos high school and knows Nathan and a ton of other of my friends), Elder Vandiford got kicked out and was living with us. That day for lunch, we were taken to this really fancy steak restaurant by a man named Brother Gibbs that comes back to Taiwan every year and takes the missionaries out in Yuanlin. His wife has all the missionaries sign a book. Inside is a picture of Chase Gluch. Oh the connections! But yeah Brother Gibbs is really sweet. He's super friendly and served here in the 80's. It was way good. Then we had zone leader exchanges. So Elder Lathen went with Elder White and Elder Fiso (who also got kicked out of Nantou 3 days early because his companion is now training), and Elder Kasner (Super sweet guy from Canada) came here with me and Elder Vandiford. We then biked out to Beidou and had a super sweet lesson. Then went even further to Xizhou, which I have never been to before, and met with another really sweet kid. Then we booked it home, 1.5 hour bike ride, and had our basketball activity with a bunch of investigators. It was super fun.

Saturday we had some more really great lessons. We just had a ton of investigators that could suddenly meet. It was amazing. Then we switched back. That night Zhu Zhang Qi came back from Taoyuan and helped Peike with Jack. It was a really good lesson. That night we got move call and I found out that I was moving here and Elder Greer is going to be my companion.

Sunday was a sad day of goodbye's to the ward. After being there for 5 months, I'm going to miss it. We had a great FHE and a family that somehow got our number called us and said they wanted to come check out our church. They came and are now super excited to meet with us. It was a super sweet miracle! We ended the week with 10 people with baptismal goals. I'm so excited for all of them!

And that was my week. It's been so crazy. I'm now in the middle of a ton of fields. It's really peaceful out here. We're in a 4 man. The other two are Taiwanese and one just barely started his mission and is being trained. It's going to be very fun. I'm way excited.

I love you all! I haven't gotten the package yet. Possibly due to me moving. And I'm so glad. I have no room left in my bags. I need to send a package home. Thank you for all the letters of support! I'm trying to write back as fast as I can. I struggle sometimes. But I love you! Until next week.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 44: Nothing Like South Africa

Dear family and friends,

This week was all over the place! To start off, on Monday night I didn't realized that I had a ton of former investigator records in their plastic sleeves all over my bed before I got in bed. So I kept waking up feeling this really cold plastic feeling on my legs and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until the alarm went off that I realized what it was. That was a bad night. Tuesday we got to meet with our ward clerk to give him new updates on less active addresses and numbers that we've found out in the past 6 months. Now we have this new ward list for me to start marking up! I love highlighters now. Never saw that coming. That night we got to meet with one of our recent converts in the area that has gone less active because her parents want her to focus on studies. We ate dinner with her. She wants to come so much, but her parents want her to focus for testing that's coming up. So we're trying to find ways to help her. She's doing really well though.

Wednesday we got to meet with Ken, one of our progressing investigators. After that lesson, I re realized the importance of reading and praying to become converted. If you don't, you're not going to be feeling the Spirit testify the truth to you. It takes your personal effort as well. It's not just going to come to you. And everyone needs to do it. Even members.

After that we had a specialized training. Zhanghua zone and part of Jiayi zone came to our building with all our zone to get training from President Bishop and the Assistants. I don't know if I told you, but Elder Allen, my trainer, and Elder Hoer, Elder Terry's trainer (I came on with Elder Terry), are the Assistants! It was so good. There has been a lot of change to how they want to have the first meeting with investigators go. They commanded us to "cast out the old ways!" It still goes in line with Preach My Gospel, but the assistants have gathered a ton of stats of investigators that didn't meet after the 1st meeting and all they're reasons as to why the lesson didn't go well. And they created a 3 step process that is just easy to follow and creates a better connection between the investigator and the missionaries. I loved it so much!

That night we had English. Since Zhu Zhang Qi moved to Taoyuan (still super depressed), the Sisters asked their recent convert to become the doorman. So I was training her. Halfway through the night, she brought up that she couldn't do it every week because she has work. So I'm looking for another doorman again! Haha. It was a really good night though. We're getting a few regulars that are starting to bring their whole family!

Thursday we went out to Tianwei and Beidou for the whole day. We were going to go all the way out to Xizhou, which I've never been to, but the lessons out there cancelled. But we got to meet with a really cool former and are now getting to meet with him again! I'm hoping to get his whole family involved as well. They all seem to have a little background with meeting missionaries. While we were in Beidou about to head home, I had a flat tire and there was nowhere to fix it! We were walking around everywhere to find a shop and finally found one after a half hour. So we had to speed home to make it to our amazing Jack!  We finished all the commandments with him and went over the Baptismal interview questions. He's so good.

Friday we had a long afternoon with a lot of investigators not making their appointments. But that night Zhu Zhang Qi came back and we had dinner with him! I've got some Juicy news! But it's still up in the air, so I'll get back you on that for a few months. But it's so cool! Yeah, you have to wait.

Saturday we got to meet some really great people at 7-11's that are meeting with us tonight! It was so great. That night Jack had his baptismal interview and passed! It was so great! I'm so excited for him. He's a little nervous though.  After that we were tracting and got inside with a really nice family with a dad that is an English teacher! They're all really cool. I hope we get to meet with them again.

Sunday was really crazy. Jack wasn't answering his phone in the morning, so we booked it to his house to wake him up or something. His grandma said he went to the factories where he works. We were so confused. And he never made it to church. So his goal dropped... So depressing. We got a hold of him later and his explanation was a little hard to follow, but we're getting to meet with him tomorrow night! Also after Sacrament meeting, we were getting ready to start Gospel Principles class and the Sisters brought in their investigator who brought these 4 South African women that have lived here for 3 years teaching English. They don't speak Chinese though, so I translated the whole lesson into English. The Sisters in our area only speak Chinese, and the South Africans don't want to go all the way up to Taizhong for the English Branch. So we might be teaching some South African Woman! That'll be exciting. 

Then while calling through all our investigators, I came up to one that the wife answered last time and wouldn't give the phone to her husband. So I was preparing myself to work with her. To my surprise, some American answered? He said we might have hit a wrong number by mistake, but I quadruple checked and it was right. It was so confusing. A few minutes later, he called back and said he wanted to donate a bunch of his white shirts and ties to missionaries. He actually knows the missionaries pretty well where he lives in Taidong, which is part of the Taibei mission. I was in a weird shock. I was baffled. I was smeckledorfed! (get the reference?) It was quite an end to the week! And today a bunch of us in the zone went to Monkey Mountain again. Elder Taylor is training, as well as a bunch of other missionaries that are going on their 15th transfer. So they'll train and then go home. A big group is coming on.

I love you all! I miss you all! Next week with be the start of the next transfer. Who knows if I'll still be in Yuanlin or in some other random area. Please keep in contact! I love letters. The church is so true!

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 43: Left In The Dust

Dear family and friends,

I don't even know what happened last week. It was all so full of happy and sad and who knows what. It all started with the other Elders leaving. I already brought that up, but Peja left too. He's a cool guy in our ward that just graduated from BYU-H and lived in Australia for a few years, so he has a sweet accent. He packed up and left for Wufeng, Taizhong. It was pretty sad. Everyone is just leaving! And it gets worse, so keep reading.

Tuesday we ate lunch at a hopeful new investigator's house. His sisters that are members brought him to the church last week and we gave him a blessing. He's a doctor and he's been sick lately. Huang Yi Wei, who helped me with the blessing, called me up and said we were invited to his house to eat lunch. To our surprise, it was while he was sleeping. His sister that lives in West Valley, Utah was there checking up on him and wanted to feed us. So that was really nice. She really believes that the recent events will finally lead him to believing the gospel. So we're going to keep slowly working with him!    We also had a great DTM on baptizing and formers. We then met with Ken right afterwards. Every time we meet with him, he says he loves coming to the church and he just wants to grow closer to God. But when we bring up his smoking, he says he really wants to quit, but we don't need to worry and he'll get over it eventually. He's having a hard time seeing the severity of it. Luckily, we have some really great members with huge testimonies of quitting smoking!

That night was the next wave of sad news. Zhu Zhang Qi came to peike for Jack. While we were waiting for Jack to arrive, Zhu said he had some kind of sad news to tell me. He said he's moving to Taoyuan for work... Heart cracked. It was so last minute. I'm way excited for him though! Better work and all. But we're such good friends! Now I know how a recent convert feels when their missionary leaves the area. Harsh.  But the lesson with Jack went really well! We shared about the Word of Wisdom and Sabbath. He remembered all of it and is completely willing to obey them. He's beyond amazing.

Wednesday we met with a new investigator that doesn't have much interest... But he makes a weird foot powder that you put in your shoe that takes away the odor in the shoe and on your foot. Pretty cool. He gave us a bunch of that for free. A Book of Mormon for sweet feet. He doesn't know what he's missing... That night at English, we had a huge blast. We had a total of 39 with 11 new. We just keep growing! I was running all over the place to get people registered. And since we now have enough to open all the classes, I was trying to get everyone into the class that fits them best. It was crazy for the first half. But everyone loved it. I'm so excited for the upcoming weeks. We decided on a Harry Potter theme for the next party. It's going to be so great!

Thursday we had a follow up English training meeting in Taizhong. So we all met there and had some extra training after seeing how the first 6 weeks of our new program has gone. They're also getting this mapping thing done for each area so you can have a map of all the members in your ward as well. So we had to work with our ward clerk to get the ward lists as updated as possible. We met with him right after we got back from Taizhong and the first thing he said was "bad news!" His key broke in the door to the building. He got the chunk out of the door though. Our key can't open the clerks office, so he tried to put the piece in and try to open it. It just got jammed in... Haha. So we had to reschedule. Zhu Zhang Qi came to say a final goodbye. We got to sit with him for a whole 7 minutes, but then he had to leave to catch a train. It was so rough. We were singing a closing song and Elder Lathen called out a number. I turned to it and it was "God be with you till we meet again." I nearly punched him for that. Haha. Zhu has already talked to the bishop in his new ward though. So he'll be good there.

That night we got to meet with Jack again. The bishop peike'd and we talked about the Law of Chastity and Tithing. Also completely golden. He's so good. We discussed getting an interview this week and getting announced in church this Sunday so he can get baptized on the 30th! I'm so excited for him.  We then biked out to Shetou to meet with a semi active family that I'm not entirely tight with. They're so cool! We talked with the mom and dad. The kids are out at school. They have really cool conversion stories and love to help out with missionary work. They're mostly busy with their car business and it involves traveling a lot. And boy can the mom cook!

Friday we had a ton of depressing lessons. Two with formers that called us up and wanted to meet with us. They don't have a desire to change. And two with less actives that have gotten too caught up in making money to want to come to church. It was rough. But while waiting for one to come to the church, the 2nd ward bishop's wife told us to come inside and talk to all these nurses about the gospel. They were preparing for this big all day long relief society activity the next day and the nurses were curious about the church. So we got to share a bit and got a few of their information for the Sisters.   Right during ward correlation that night, one of our progressing investigators randomly called us and said he was at the church. So we split and sat with him. He'd doing pretty good, but not entirely sure how he feels about prayer yet. He keeps having a feeling that he can't describe though. That's usually a good sign. We just need to keep following up on that.

Saturday afternoon we were called and told to come to the church for that big relief society activity. Luckily our plans to go out to our secondary area fell through. We got there and the first thing I see is a ton of Nantou ward members! They all still remember me. They commented on how I've lost weight and my Chinese has improved. (Those two things are always brought up when you haven't seen someone in a while here). Then they started giving me all this stuff. I got finger puppets, and water bottles, and other little things. It was really cool. Our less active recent converts were also there and we were able to set up with them for dinner this week! Such a miracle.

Sunday was a nice regular Sunday. We had FHE and one of our investigators came. Halfway through he said he wanted to meet with us outside of FHE. So we went into another room and talked. I like that he's been building this trust in us and is open with us. It really helps to know what his needs are. It was a pretty nice way to end the night.

I feel like so many people just packed up and left this last week. It's weird. It's usually me that ends up leaving at the last minute! Haha. But it was a pretty great week. I love you all! I miss you all! Letters are always really great. Pictures are super great too. Sorry I haven't sent any in a while. Our emailing has felt really short recently. I'll try to get some out next week! I didn't bring my cable today. Keep the faith!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter