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
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