Dear family and friends,
This past week has been such a week of miracles! I really feel so blessed to have had such a week. Monday we were able to work with a less active lady. She really opened up to us and we feel like we have her trust now. Although it was super hard to hear her. The rain was flooding down and lighting was flashing everywhere.
Tuesday we had to get up nice and early to catch a bus to Zhanghua for interviews and planner checks. While we were there, we were instructed on how to use this new map system that our mission just created. It has every member mapped out. It'll help us be able to find all the less active members whose addresses are just too hard to find. All the wards have been given the software and can make the updates on who has moved or has phone number changes. It's super cool. I also got to do planner checks with Elder Allen. It was super fun. We also got mission T-shirts! Whether or not I'll wear mine in public, I don't know. But it's a good relaxing shirt.
That after noon we biked out to a far away area by the ocean to meet with our Elders Quorum President to visit his less active wife. She works on Sundays. She works at this restaurant that is all seafood. Dad... I was force fed roughly 40 oysters... I wanted to cry. The things you gotta do to show your love. And she is really nice. I hope we can somehow help her come back. That night we got to meet with Chen mama. She has a ton of interesting questions. But her desire is there!
Wednesday we had a bit of fun trying to contact in the rain. I'm not a huge fan of it. It needs to be a storm for me to love it. But if it's just whatever rain, I almost fear getting wet. That night we had a miracle new student at English! She called us earlier in the day and asked if we taught the English class. Her friend told her about it and gave them our number. She has to speak English a lot for work. When she came and registered, I asked her if she wanted to hear a little bit about our church. She politely declined. But after our spiritual share, she came up to me and was curious about the difference between our church and other Christian churches. We got to share a little bit about the restoration. She's still a little iffy about meeting with us, but her look on English class, missionaries, and the church is really good. She's super excited to come back again. I possibly scarred my Advanced class though. The lesson was on food and I told them about a few American food eating contests. They looked horrified... Oops...
Thursday was a pretty normal day. But that night all four of us biked to one of our far away areas to visit a member family for dinner. We got super lost. And it seemed like no one in the town knew their way around. But when we found them, we had a really sweet lesson. Their family is really cool. Super humble.
Friday Elder Allen came to be with us for the day! It was such an amazing day! We had so much fun on the streets finding new investigators. Everything was just so much fun. Us and the other Elders had pizza at the church with the Bishop to discuss the new map project. Elder Allen fell asleep... Haha! Then we got lost trying to find a potential investigator. He was a former. When we finally found him, the lesson went really well. He's a lot older than he sounded on the phone. But he's super willing to meet again. It was such a fun exchange with Elder Allen.
Saturday morning we played basketball with a lot of ward members. The ward is getting super unified. During the afternoon we used the new maps to find some less active members. We ended up finding a teenage girl who got baptized with her mom. Her mom wasn't there, so we got to talk with the girl and she wanted to come to church! She's still pretty good friends with some of the young women in the ward. And she's super amazing at playing the piano. That night we had a family come to the church that we set up. A mom and her 10 year old twin sons. One of the sons does English competitions and wanted help. We helped him a bit. The mom loved the feel of the church and loved singing a few hymns with us. They're a super willing family. I'm so excited to meet with them some more.
Sunday Chen mama came to church! She had to drag her husband along, but he enjoyed it too. And they stayed for the full 3 hours! It was super amazing. After church she said "It's really weird. Every time you come over to my house, it stops raining. Only when you come over. Never before with other missionaries. And then every question I ask you ends up getting answered at church." Well yeah! The blessings of church. As for me being able to stop the rain, I can't describe that. But she enjoyed church. Then last night we had a big FHE at a members house. They cooked some pretty traditional stuff. And they took pity on me for being the only American. So they also cooked chicken nuggets and french fries for me. They ended up eating most of them though. Haha!
What a week. There were so many miracles. I'm super excited to see how this weeks goes. There are miracles for those who trust in the Lord. The work needs to be done! I love you all. I hope your summer is going pretty well. It's getting pretty hot here. And it hasn't started yet...
Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter
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