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
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