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Monday, October 8, 2012

Taiwan Week 21: Working With The Ward

Dear family and friends,

We were informed of the new missionary ages, and that is SO cool! I honestly think it'll be really weird having Sister missionaries that are my age and younger out here. I'm only used to Sisters that are older than me! And that's so excited for all the young men as well. Taiwanese young men were already able to serve at age 18 because of a military thing that they're all required to do here, so it's really cool that the rest of the world can do it as well! There will definitely be a huge jump in missionary work from this. Get those seniors in our ward out here! Haha

I got the package yesterday (Sunday) because of a delivery problem the day before. So I got it right after I broke my fast. And you best believe I dipped those oreos in that Nutella right away! So good! I loved it so much. Oh and I think I'm good on animal crackers for a while. I still had a bit from the last package left over. Hey, I can dip those in Nutella too! Just thought of that.

This past week has been pretty great and annoying at the same time. We had a lot of people set up on Monday night and they never showed up. We even called them and they said they were on their way. After 15 minutes or so, we would call them again and their phone was turned off. That drives me crazy. So we had to result to our back up plans all night.

Tuesday we had a really amazing lesson with a new investigator. We taught him about the restoration and he had a great interest in the 1st vision. He thought it was absolutely amazing. We also gave him a Book of Mormon and talked about it. He was even more in shock as we told him how it came to be and what it contains. Then when we told him that he can also pray daily to God, he got so excited. I'm really excited to meet with him tomorrow and share more with him. He's such a great guy.

Wednesday we had our Zone Training Meeting. It was really good. This month we're focusing on working with the ward. We've set some new goals for our wards and how we're going to help them get involved. Our Bishop also set up to take us to dinner the following night. That'll help! At English class, we had some pretty low numbers, but we had some new people come as well! Michael came and brought his daughter! They had to leave early for a doctor's appointment, but I was really glad to meet his daughter and talk to him for a bit. The Zone leaders' investigator that has already passed his interview came and loves it. And the Sisters' quickly progressing investigator that they met at English class was there as well.

Thursday we biked out to Qieding to visit the Ke family. They had some friends over who were really cool and welcoming to us. One of them had gone to English class in my last area (Nantou) 15 years ago! They're open to all religions and think it's really cool that the Ke family is liking this church. That night we had dinner with the Bishop, his wife, the Sisters, and a family that just returned from China. It was at a really nice traditional restaurant. Of course we had to try everything that was brought to us. And the Bishop laughed his really awesome wise laugh when I tried to down the fish soup. It was good because we were able to set up a time to meet with him and discuss the ward mission plan. That's also tomorrow.

Friday we had another really sweet lesson with an 18 year old that's just starting college. He's really cool. He showed a great amount of interest as well and is excited to learn more. He said he could come to church, but later had to cancel. But he's still wanting to learn more! We also got to meet with a really cool less active that we've been meeting with for a while. He's really cool. He's trying to come to church, but work always gets in the way. But he said he's going to for sure get this weekend off to come to conference. He likes conference.

Saturday was rough. We had set up 7 lessons all in an hour and a half. So we were going to have to split up and teach all of them as they came, but one by one, they fell apart. It was pretty rough. We had two of them say they were on their way and then never arrive or answer their phone after that. So annoying! But we were able to visit this really amazing member in the ward that's getting ready to go to the temple. I'm so excited for him!! He's got such a genuine heart. And he said he wants to help us visit this less active family in the ward. They were active when he was baptized, and he wants to help re-activate them! That night was also a baptism of an 8 year old boy in the 4th ward. His family is American, so all of it was done in English. It was the weirdest thing to hear the baptism and confirmation in English! Great family though.

Sunday was really great! It started out really rough because a lot of the people that confirmed for church didn't come. But after the first hour, one of our kind of former investigators that we meet with off and on came because he felt like he needed to. And then the Ke family arrived right before Sacrament meeting. And this was the best part: right near the end of the meeting, the Ke dad stands up and is pulled and dragged to the stand by his kids to bear his testimony (also something I haven't seen since being in America). And his testimony was so amazing and so touching! I loved it. It was such a great way to end the meeting.

And that was my week. It was a lot of fun. I'm really excited for this coming week! We've got some really great people that we're meeting with. And I get to watch conference this weekend! I'm so excited! I love conference! I love you all so much. Thank you for all the support and letters that help me push on in the work! Until next week!

 
Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

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