I Love Families!

Dear family and friends,

To start off, I'm still in Pingdong! And what's even more shocking, I'm still with Elder Teerlink! Our whole 4-man stayed together! So crazy. It's so rare to be with a companion for over 2 transfers. And we're doing it. We were all so shocked. I'm so excited.

So Tuesday we had a fun time mopping 5 floors of stairs for some service. It was a lot of fun, and we were fed this really good pecan spread on toast. It was just way good! Then I got to help one of our RC's write a letter to the Elder that baptized him. He can't write that well, so I helped him out. It was way fun.

Wednesday was so dang CRAZY!! We had to prepare all day for our Halloween party. I had to carry the box that had our washing machine in it to the church on my bike. That was way hard. Then we made this really epic haunted house out of bedsheets and newspaper. That took so long. We had the help of a lot of the young single adults. We were all really stressing out though. We got it all done 10 minutes before 7:00. We had 83 people show up. They all had so much fun. We had bobbing for apples, eating donuts on a string, face painting, and the haunted house. All the YSA were the scarers. They did a great job. Kang Zhe Wei was in the washing machine box and grabbed people's hands as they grabbed some candy. It was so great. Everyone loved the decorations that you sent out mom. Especially the big Halloween balloon that I suspended on the basketball hoop. It took so long to clean up afterwards.

Thursday we had such a great night. We went by the Lin family's house. They're such a great family. As they continue to investigate, they see the significance of the gospel in their lives. And they're so nice too. I'm so excited to keep meeting with them. We also got to split up after that and help two of our other investigators make goals for baptism! I'm so excited! It was a great night.

Friday was hard. I had the biggest headache and thought I was going to pass out. But I exchanged with Elder Bardsley. We went all over the place. We went to two of his secondary areas far away. At one we met with and investigator that has been investigating for a while. He's just really busy. Just by talking to him, he opened up a lot about what was keeping him back. And then the mayor of the town walked in. He knows a few members and asked about family history. He got way excited and said he wants to do a whole town family history day and needs our help. He thinks it'll be a great way to spread the gospel too. People are weird like that here. They don't accept it themselves, but they're willing to help you help others learn about the gospel. So we told our ward and they were all so excited. So we're going to hopefully get this town into our church for family history!

Saturday was interesting because Elder Averrett came up from Chaozhou. His companion was training, so he came with us for the day. We were all over the place trying to get all the business done that we had to. We then had a really sweet lesson with James. He just walked into the church my first week with Elder Teerlink. He's been very off and on with meeting with us. And right as we were about to stop trying, he sets up again and opens up SO MUCH!! So we're going to keep helping him. He's really excited to keep trying. We'll do all we can to help him.

Sunday the Lin family came to church! I was so happy to see them come. The ward just ate them up. They loved it a lot. They're excited to keep meeting with us. I also had a feeling to call a few less active people up during the week and most of them came too! One of which was a family. I sat by the one I called up and didn't even know his mom and sister came too. The 2nd counselor in the bishopric talked to us afterwards and asked if we called him. They've been trying to get them to come back for a while. It was just a day of miracles. Then that night we had dinner at Sister Hu's house. Sister Liu left today, so it was like a goodbye dinner.  Then Hengchun Elders came up since one of them is moving today too. So it was just a long night with a lot of Elders.

And that was the week of weird. I loved it so much. I'm so excited to stay here in Pingdong for a little longer. I love you all! I miss you all.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter