Cold Again

Dear family and friends,

It was a good week! Time seems to have flown really fast! I don't know where it went. Monday night we had a good single's FHE at the church. It was on dating, which was a little interesting. But one thing they really focused on was body language and showing someone you're interesting in what they're saying. And that's something missionaries are good at. So we did some demonstrations. It was fun.

Tuesday Elder Buhler needed to get an MRI at the hospital across the street from the mission office due to a previous football incident. So we had to go there in the morning and ended up waiting for 5 hours for our appointment. They said it was going to be a few hours, so we originally went over to the office and had President Blickenstaff check it. He said it should be fine, but he was worried about the popping in his shoulder, so he said we should just wait. We finally got in at 4:00 and had a 5 minute check up and then had to schedule an MRI for 3 weeks later. Haha! What a day. We made a switch for exchanges with the Fengjia Elders once we got back. I went into Fengjia with Elder Brown. We just had time to make some calls at the end of the night.

Wednesday Elder Brown and I had an appointment with a lady in the ward for lunch and brought an RC. This lady makes the BEST barley tea! I loved it so much. Then we took that RC contacting in a park. We ended up finding this really nice Filipino lady there that has a lot of interest and has seen missionaries in the Philippines. She said we can come back whenever and share more! We ended the day at a Turkish guy's kabob sandwich shop in the night market. It was one of the most delicious kabobs I've ever eaten. Then at English class we had a great class just talking about the most random stuff. I love the advanced class. Ezekiel, one of my students, loves the churches hymns. He just kept looking at all the songs in my book and writing them all down. Hopefully that'll catch his interest more in the gospel.

Also, while on exchanges, Elder Buhler and Elder Christensen went to meet with Kyle! He's been struggling with family disapproval. He knows he needs to get baptized, but is scared of what they'll do. Finally after them meeting with him, he set a date for March 1st! Such a miracle! He's getting interviewed tomorrow!

On Thursday after weekly planning we went up to the top of the hill to a semi less active couple's house. She's from Indonesia and her little son stepped on a nail while playing around the previous week. So all of us in our district went up there and cleaned up around her house. There was a lot of decayed wood and nails. It was a lot of fun. Then that night we froze to death trying to make phone calls out in the cold.

Friday after ward correlation and studies, we went out into the cold again and did some hardcore finding. We went down south a bit to the more rural area and looked for a less active. We caught him right as he was going to work... But we then went to another teenage less actives house. He lives right by us. It was really fun talking to him and making him feel loved. One of his friends is taking him to his church. So we said he should now take his friend to this church and see how he likes it! He liked that idea.

Saturday felt a little better. Not as cold. We had a lot of fun out on the streets. Not a whole lot of success though. But on Sunday Miguel came to church! We kind of contacted each other about a month ago and he came to English class. He's really amazing. He's finally back from all the Chinese New Year stuff and came to church! He loved it! Also, Zhuang dixiong got the Priesthood and passed the Sacrament! It was so great! A lot of happiness going on at church yesterday. It was Elder Christensen's last day though. He's now on a plane. Last night we had our movie night and watch the full Joseph Smith movie. A lot of people came and loved it.

Today we're starting POWER Week tonight! It'll be a fun week! I'm really excited! I'm loving it here. Time is ticking down though... We'll make it count! I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter