Then There Was A Typhoon!

Dear family and friends,

 

What an interesting week. I'd love to say a lot happened, but not a lot did. Monday I pretty much messed up our whole night. I felt so bad. But it worked out in the end. We had set up with a less active at his hair cutting salon. But it was more like we'd just stop by and have a short lesson between customers. But I switched in my head his lesson with Xie dixiong at his bear shop on Tuesday. So I booked it to the bear shop and Elder Teerlink was a little confused. We got there and his cousin let us in. I called him and was confused and thought maybe he just accidentally scheduled the wrong day. So we met with him. We were able to set a time table to overcome tea and coffee. Then after we got home, I realized that he really was set up for Tuesday and we just left an LA in the dust. We saw him later on in the week though and he forgot we were supposed to come, so it ended up being ok.

 

Tuesday was the start of the rain. We had a great DTM on talking to everyone. We had cool practicing scenarios. Then every lesson fell through because of the rain and one because of sudden family things. So the day was very long. But we also had a really fun English powerboarding. We got a lot of success from that.

 

Wednesday was also very long because the typhoon was about to hit and everyone wanted to stay home. It was just little rain (for Taiwan) all day, until right before English class started. Then it came pouring down. Elder Bardsley and I went outside with umbrellas to escort people inside. We still had a surprising turnout of 22. It was a nice night. A lady in my class said a prayer for the first time to close the lesson. It was cool.

 

Thursday there was lots of rain. But I was stuck inside all day so it was ok. From lunch to dinner I had phase 1 pass offs, ward coordination meeting, and a baptismal interview for the Sisters' investigator. We ended up eating at the same place for dinner 4 days in a row. It was unintentional, but they've warmed up to us a lot. Now their just making us their star meals. Then we tracted for a while. I love tracting. A man let us in and loved talking about American sports teams. But then his wife came home and he kicked us out so fast, it was like he was in trouble. It was funny.

 

Friday was a lot like Thursday. After weekly planning, I had to do a few phase 1 pass offs. And it was pouring all day still. After a long day, Xie dixiong came to the church. I love when he comes to the church because he's more focused. We asked him how his time table was helping him. He's been exceeding beyond it! He got up to where he planned to be a few weeks later! So we're really excited for him.

 

Saturday and Sunday were really complicated with Lin dixiong. All said and done, he's going to Taibei for 3 months for a school program they have here. They have school for 3 months and then work for 3 months, and then they do it again. It's year round. So because of that, his baptism was thrown all out of wack. But we were working with the bishop and the stake president because they work with Lin dixiong's and our RC Xiao dixiong's school system and we can figure out where they're both going so we can have the missionaries and the wards look after them there.

 

Sunday night was really relaxed. It was still raining all day, but we got to go to a lady's house in our ward. A cool 30 year old in our ward is going to be a short term missionary with one of our zone leaders who is stepping down and opening up a brand new area that has never had missionaries before in Tainan. So he came to dinner as well and we got to share about missionary work.

 

I have been semi sick for the past 3 days, so my days were really dizzy. But they were still really great. I'm way excited for this week. Elder Teerlink and I have made plans to go out to some of our undiscovered secondary areas in the mountains where all the aborigines live! It'll be fun.

 

I love you all! I hope everyone is doing ok! I pray for all of you!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter