Taiwan Week 4: Always Progressing

Dear family and friends,

I can't believe this week will mark my first full month in Taiwan! That's so crazy. We realized that last night after reminiscing our adventures in different monsoon rainfalls. This last week has been pretty adventurous in other weeks! It started out with a zone activity last Monday after emailing. We all met in Caotun and went to a chidaobao. Which is an all you can eat hot pot. So good! I keep eating more and more each time we go to one of those. It was really cool seeing/meeting everyone in my zone. Also, there's these drinks called duoduo. It's like yogurt in the form of a drink. I'm fully addicted to it. It tastes so good. It was all you can drink at the chidaobao. We all love it.

The family that we're working with is really progressing. Last Monday night we brought the Bishop and his family over to their house and taught them about family home evening. They thought it was really nice. Later in the week we met with them and watched Finding Faith in Christ. That movie is so great. Members and investigators alike love that movie. This wonderful family knows everything we teach them is true and they're feeling great about baptism, but they would like to come to church a few more times. And they're having a little problem trying to find out how to tell their parents about wanting to be baptized, because their parents are very baibai (ancestor worship) and want their kids to worship them once they die. So we're still trying to work with that. But other than that, they're doing so great. They came to church yesterday and loved it. During our gospel principles class, he made a comment about repentance and we pointed out that Christ said almost those exact same words in 3 Nephi. He was so in shock and pretty much fell in love with the scriptures even more. So Great! I'm excited to work with them tonight.

The wife of our recent convert has been progressing so much. Her husband has been getting her to read the gospel principles book so much so she can understand what we teach better. And she asks the really good questions that no one else asks, but is usually a thought in their mind. I really love how bold she is with questions. Like she asked why other churches don't use the Book of Mormon as scripture. It's these little interesting questions that are helping her learn so much more and have a desire to learn more. She now has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month! She really wants to work towards it. She also came to church yesterday and she's making so many friends in the Relief Society. She's loving it.

We've been working with a somewhat former investigator. His record is completely full and we think he's had all the lessons and dropped right before getting the baptism interview. It's a little unsure looking on the record. Record keeping is so important. I can't stress that enough. But we've been meeting with him more. He came to church last week and we asked him about his thoughts towards church and baptism. He knows all of it is true. There are just little but essential things that are a problem for him. But he knows it's all true. He said he's been obeying all the commandments, stopped smoking and drinking tea and coffee. So we asked him if he has a desire to be baptized and he said yes. So we've set a goal with him for the 23rd of this month! He wants to work towards it. I'm really hoping. He's such a great guy. Very positive and loves joking around.

Last Thursday we were surprised to find out that a group of students from West Valley, Utah were coming to Nantou for a month as foreign exchange students. We heard they were coming straight to our church from the airport to get an orientation. We called the bishop and asked if he knew and he was like "yeah. Actually... you all should probably be there too." Haha so we got to be their welcome committee and it was nice since a few of us are from Utah. One of them came to church yesterday and had a great time. There's also a kid in each of the hosting families that's going to Utah next month. I guess it's like a kid swap for a month. And the zone leaders came in contact with them before the Utah exchange students arrived and were so excited to learn about the church since Utah has so many members. So from this exchange program, they have this REALLY willing family to teach. Opportunities to teach everywhere!

Sister Porter, the head of the chinese department at the MTC, has flown out here and is going all around to Taiwan to spend a day with everyone in my MTC group to see our progression since we were the first in the 9 week pilot program. So on Saturday she was with us and got to watch our studies and our ward correlation meeting. And it just so happened that as part of my weekly training, I had to take the lead in working with our ward mission leader and discuss the progress of our investigators. So she had good timing to take part in that. Then she said the church is volunteering to pay for a meal of our choice. So we went to a steak chidaobao, recommended by zone leader Elder Muhlelstein. And it was so good! So much food. Then we got to take a taxi all over our area and visit with a potential investigator and a less active. It was really fun. Then we had interviews with her about the pilot program and she left. It was such a cool day. I could tell she really missed being here. She served in this mission as well.

On Saturday night in the middle of the night I got to experience my first EARTHQUAKE! It was really cool. We actually didn't really know it was an earthquake until the next morning. I was dead asleep and next thing I know, my bed is shaking like crazy. Mine and Elder Allen's beds are right next to each other. I have 3 mattresses piled on top of each other, and he has 2. So mine is really shaky and I thought he was like kicking my bed or something. But then we were informed that it was an earthquake. We're supposed to be getting bed frames in the next 2 weeks, and I'm so glad we don't have them yet. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed that cool experience!

Last night we went to a member family's house. This week's zone leader invite was to get members involved in inviting others to come to church and get referrals from them. So we met with them in the far south mountains of our area in the middle of a huge rain storm. They're such a great family. The wife is Philipino and they have two teenage boys. It was a lot of fun and they're actually already working with the husbands brothers and asking them about church and stuff. Way to go them! Then we had the most intense trail biking experience as we were on this epic flooded trail in the dark in the middle of the biggest storm I've ever experienced. I loved it. The family didn't think we'd want to go all the way out to their house, but we assured them that distance isn't a problem to visit with them. What a great family!

I'm so excited for this coming week! The weather is supposed to be very stormy. We have some great appointments and new families to visit. It's going to be a great week of learning and serving.

I love you all! I pray for you all daily. I hope everything is going well. Please continue to write and keep me updated! Don't let any moment pass you by. Look to serve everyone! The Lord loves each and every one of us. Put your trust in Him and he'll guide you. And for all you fathers, have a happy Fathers Day! Happy Fathers day dad! I love you so much! You're such a great example to me. I'm so glad I can call you my father. Thank you for all you've done in raising me to be who I am! Until next week.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter 

Taiwan week 3: Game Day

Dear family and friends,

This past week has been very eventful. I don't quite know how to organize it in this email. I guess it all started last preparation day after emails, us and the ming jian elders spent a lot of the day in Nantou city and just adventured around. Every move call, we go on exchanges with the district leader and another exchange with the zone leaders. One of the ming jian elders is the district leader, so we planned to just do it after the training meeting on Tuesday. But last Monday night while we were teaching an investigator at the church, we asked one of our recent converts to peike for us (help teach the lesson). He was baptized a few weeks before I got here and is so solid. We also planned to meet with him afterwards and have a lesson with him. He said he was going to try to bring a friend from work too. So he showed up a little late with a girl to peike and we let him in and asked if the girl he brought was his girlfriend. He said "nope, this is my wife." What?! Elder Allen was one of the elders that taught him and baptized him and didn't even know he was married. And she's 6 months pregnant. That was a shock to both of us. It turns out he normally lived in mainland China and came down here without her to find work first, which is where he ran into the missionaries and got baptized. So she just got here a few days before that and is interested. So now we're teaching them as a family. Which is so amazing! But she really has no knowledge of Christianity. It really shows us the need to teach for understanding and teaching simply. But we love teaching her and having her husband there as another testimony.

I got to go with Elder Croft to ming jian for a day. It was really cool. I could really see the emphasis of being a friend to everyone we come in contact with. He is so friendly to everyone. He said "after the first few seconds of looking at someone, you have the automatic assumption of what kind of person they are. If you can push past that an instantly think they're another brother of sister, a son or daughter of God, you'll develop the love and desire to help them know and partake of this gospel." I learned a lot about sincerely listening and seeking to understand the needs of people. That became our focus of the exchange. It was so amazing. We also got lost because we were involved in a deep gospel discussion and got on the wrong train back to the apartment. We actually left our zone and had to call President Bishop and let him know we were going to be late getting back. It was funny. He thought it was funny. I also passed off the first lesson to Elder Croft and am actually passing off the 2nd tomorrow! Learning the language comes faster and faster through listening and speaking.

For some mysterious reason, we've run into a lot of people that speak really good english and have been teaching them a bit in english. It's kind of weird. We have a family, a guy that comes to our english class, and these 3 students. Of of them was born in LA and knows really good english. It was really cool though being able to teach them. Right now, it was a lot easier to teach them and get more involved because I could understand everything they were saying. A good relief for now!

We have a secondary area called Zhong liao that is pretty far away in the mountains. We have a potential investigator up there and we went to meet him. And that was easily the most painful bike ride I've ever been on. It was the hottest day I've experienced so far and it was completely uphill. We were drenched in sweat. But it was so great. We got to meet with a less active on the way and invited him to come back to church. Then when we got to the guys house, I learned that he is in the airforce and is a pretty intense guy. But so nice. Although he seems a little more interested in being buds than learning about the church. We had dinner there, and I'm still in shock. I ate fish. Like it was a full fish staring at me while I ate it. It was so interesting. Still trying to get used to it.

I thought that was an intense experience, until the next day... We went to something like an outdoor food court and just ordered these noodles that we weren't sure what was in them. To my utter shock, it was noodles with squid, clams, crab, fish ball, processed fish patty things, and some other kind of fish. I still can't believe I ate it. And that has set the standard for most interesting food so far. I'm trying new stuff everyday!

Sunday was absolutely amazing! Our main three progressing investigators, one of them a family, all came to church. Plus 2 that are still a little curious about meeting with us. On top of that, all our recent converts were there, and 4 less actives that we have been working with. Including the one from Zhong liao. It was so great! We were having a party getting all of them involved in the lessons. It was so much fun. They all really loved it. I was so happy. I was especially happy to hear the father of the family say church has strengthened his faith so much and his whole family loves it. The wife of our recent convert says she understands so much more now and is excited to learn. And our other main progressing investigator said he loved the peace he felt there and all he was able to learn. Attendance at church jumped from in the 80's to 103. What a great Fast Sunday!

We have also started up a single's family night every Sunday night. So it was a lot of fun getting all the single members there to get to know each other more. They all had fun. And there are still so many more that haven't come yet.

I'm so excited to see what happens this week! So many great experiences are ahead. I love reaching out and serving everyone here. I'm learning so much and seeing miracles everyday. The life of a missionary is so different, but I'm loving every bit of it.

I love you all! I love hearing about everyone's lives back home. Please continue to write and keep me updated! The Lord loves each and every one of us. Look for and be thankful for all the blessings in your life. This church is true. It has blessed my life so much and I can see it blessing the lives of all those who are learning more about it everyday. It's such a blessing to have the scriptures to learn from everyday. I love having all the guidance of the scriptures. Continue to read and pray everyday and I know it'll bless your life. I love you all! Until next week.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

 We tried to wedgie our pants to be old school

 On the plane to Taiwan

Elder Petter right before he left to go home

Taiwan Week 2

Dear family and friends,

Another week of my mission is gone! Where does the time go?... I don't really have a grasp of time right now. It's fast and slow. Looking back, it feels like stuff from last week was just yesterday. It's so weird.

So there's a learning program we have here with 3 phases. It's very detailed and so helpful in learning the language and how to teach in the language. I'm in phase 1 (obviously), and I'm passing off the first section to my district leader tomorrow. I'm so nervous but excited! I had a flashback to the movie "The Best Two Years" when Kirby Heyborn says he's in trouble because this isn't the language he learned in the MTC. I'm kind of having that experience right now. When people talk, it's just this slur of who knows what. It's like... real chinese. And Elder Allen understands it and keeps going! That will take some time to get used to. We're working on an language goal for me right now to help me progress faster. He's really good at helping me learn.

My district is so solid! We had a training meeting last Tuesday and it's so much fun meeting with all of them. They're all so focused on improving to help their investigators come unto Christ. My district leader is Elder Crofts. He's so nice and welcoming. I love all the missionaries here!

Elder Allen and I have some really promising investigators. We have a family that is so solid with every commitment. They've just had some scheduling conflicts with coming to church. But they said they can this week. And they love studying the scriptures as a family. We even gave them a childrens Book of Mormon to help keep the kids interested. They're pretty young. They attended another baptism we had in our ward this last Saturday and they said they absolutely love the atmosphere of the Church and they're excited to come this Sunday. 

We also have a few pretty new investigators who are pretty shy and don't have much to say. But they keep calling US back to schedule another meeting and they said they'll be able to come to church this Sunday as well. I love when people are so curious about the church that they're just dying to learn more. These few were just people we ran into on the street and they really love learning more about the gospel. We've been really lucky to run into so many people that are that willing to learn and come to church as well. I'm not entirely sure if I said this in the last email, but we call church "game day" because it's so crazy getting everyone there and getting them situated and comfortable. But most of the time, if they have a good first experience at church, they're hooked on wanting to be baptized. Church is so essential in conversion. I love it.

As far as I've heard, President Bishop has made a lot of changes to the mission to help all members have enduring conversion. A lot of converts have stopped coming and it's one of our focuses to help them stay active. As well as look for less actives and help them want to come back. I absolutely love doing it. I love working with the recent converts and helping them want to learn more. 

We had a pretty awesome experience yesterday at church. One of the original missionaries of Taiwan, Elder Kitchen, came with his wife to speak to us. Him and 3 others got here in 1956 (I think) and had pretty much no knowledge of the language or any gospel material in mandarin. I can't imagine how hard that would be. That helped me so much to realize what hard work and trust in the Lord can do. They're back here in Taiwan on a temple mission. It was so cool. They also taught the sunday school lesson and showed us pictures of his mission. So much has changed.

I love you all! I miss you dearly. But there's work to be done. And I'm loving the blessings of doing it! I love the people of Taiwan. I can't wait to give you some more updates on what will happen in this coming week. Please continue to write! I love hearing back from everyone. The Lord loves all of us. And he wants to help us, as long as we have the desire to learn from Him. Pretty much the scripture that kept coming up in a lot of our lessons was Ether 12:27. My invitation this week is to read that and wonder how the Lord could help you this week. He'll help you as much as you have faith in Him.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

First Week In Taiwan: Time to dive in and go

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, I finally made it! I can't believe it. This place is so cool. To start off, it is so humid here. I feel like a frog. It's so intense. I love it though! The air is very thick with moisture. It's like taking a drink with every breath. My clothes are pretty soggy most of the time. Also, the plane flights were very nice. Both of them were reasonably on time and we were able to transition really well. I didn't realize how long that flight from LAX to Taipei was, until I looked at the clock and found out that it had only been 8 hours and I still had so many to go. What a long flight. But it was a very nice flight. The plane was huge! I've never had such a smooth flight. We landed around 9:00 local time and met up with our Mission President. President Bishop is so cool! We had a 2 hour drive to the mission home from the airport, so we got to know him and his wife a bit; as well as the assistants. He gave us a brief of what is expected on the mission. I'll be honest, I had never been so scared in my life. There is so much to do! We didn't get in to our apartment until after 12:30. We stayed with the zone leaders in Taichung. By the way, it's actually Taizhong. It drives me crazy to call it Taichung now.

We were awakened really fast with a hardcore run through the city to a stadium to run some more. It was so hard to keep up with the zone leaders. In the end, we had run about 2.5 miles by 7:00 am. I'm glad I'm used to getting up early now. We ate breakfast at the mission home and President Bishop gave us some more training. He is so smart and knowledgeable. And he's super nice. We had training most of the day. We also got to go to a hot pot for lunch. I love those so much. And dinner we went to one of those places with a huge spinning table on a bigger table. (I have no idea how to describe it). I'm definitely going to have to get used to fish here. We were surprised with something afterwards. Dan Jones night. We all got to go this night market and stand on a box just like Dan Jones and preach the gospel. We just did our testimonies, then a missionary would take us individually and do street contacting. It was intense. It was pouring rain and we just went around and looked for referrals and people interested in the gospel. I enjoyed it quite a lot, even though I couldn't understand much!

The next morning was pretty much the same routine. Then we went into the church and were greeted by all the trainers. One of them welcomed us and sat with us. But we didn't know if they were our trainer or not. After a few more lessons by the assistants and the mission president and his wife, we watched a pretty intense inspirational video that got me so pumped. I was still scared out of my mind though. Finally it was time to find out who our trainer is. We did it in a traditional Chinese way with the red envelopes. I was first. I opened it up and read "Elder Allen, Nantou." So crazy! I honestly can't explain the huge amount of comfort I felt as I saw him come up to greet me. I could really feel the spirit's comfort that he will be an amazing trainer for me. It feels so great. So we all went out to eat one last time, grabbed our stuff, and headed off to our respective areas.

Nantou is more in the center of the island. It's not as populated and is so beautiful! We had an hour bus ride here, so we were able to get to know each other a bit. He's actually from Alpine, Utah. And he graduated the same year I did. Pretty cool if you ask me! We share an apartment with the zone leaders for our area, which is pretty rare. Most companionships live by themselves. Another rare thing is we have 6 missionaries in our ward. Us, the zone leaders, and a companionship of sisters. I love it!

We went out and did some street contacting almost right as we got back. That's jumping in. I couldn't understand a thing. We were able to go to a few houses and talk to some families. By the end of the night, I was completely terrified that I wasn't going to learn the language.

I'm so glad for planning and goals. If it wasn't for those, everything would be so much harder. We'd be all over the place. We had some meetings on Saturday and I was able to meet the ward mission leader. Really nice guy. Everyone here is so nice! Then we did some tracting. I can't wait to be able to talk to people more. The people we got to talk to were really hospitable.

I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to have two baptisms in my ward on my second day! A 14 year old boy and an 8 year old girl whose family are already members. All the missionaries planned to sing a special musical number at the baptism, so we met a few minutes early to go over it. Oh by the way, our zone leaders names are Elder Petters and Elder Gulas. Elder Petters' time is up and he is going home today. Elder Petters was going to be doing the baptizing, when he suddenly walked in and said, "ELDER BUCKWALTER, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BAPTIZE TONIGHT?" Total shock came over me. This is his last chance to baptize and he gave it to me as a welcoming experience. He has such a soft soul. Such a nice guy. But then it sat in that I had to memorize the baptizmal prayer in chinese! So it's 5 minutes before the service starts and I'm scrambling to put on Elder Petters' clothes while trying to memorize the prayer. And as far as everyone has said, I did a very good job. The two kids are so lucky to be baptized into this true church. What an experience! I asked the boy how he felt afterwards and he said great! So great.

There was a ward fireside immediately afterwards. So I was able to meet a lot of the ward. I absolutely love this ward! Everyone is so nice (and patient with my chinese). They're all so willing to work with us to help us teach investigators. I also love the spirit felt around them. It's so strong and loving.

Sunday we had church in the morning. It was so nice. I'm really starting to more experience the blessings and spiritual blessings of church. I can't understand much of what everyone is saying, but the spirit speaks every language and I could feel it. We call Sunday "game day" because getting investigators to church is a huge step for their conversion process. It's such a blessing to go to church.

All of us missionaries had dinner at a recent converts house last night and we brought one of our investigators. He's very curious about the Holy Ghost. It was so much fun. We also met with an investigating family at the end of the night. They're so golden. I can't wait to see them progress more.

Today we said our goodbyes to Elder Petters and he left. Today is more for getting me settled in and ready to get into the daily schedule. I love my bike! We're about to go buy accessories for it.

Ok so now here's the info for everyone back home. No matter where I'm transfered to, my mailing address stays the same. It goes to the mission office first. So always use that address. Also, use the US postal service. They don't accept Fedex here. Very crutial. And it shouldn't cost that much when you use the flat rate boxes. And this time is about when we'll be doing emails every Monday. Just a heads up.

I absolutely love it here. It's so much fun. Still a lot of hard work trying to learn and learn how to teach. But it's so much fun as well. I can't wait for this coming week. We have some great lessons coming up. I'm so excited. I'm sorry for how long this is! I just had so much to say for my first week. I'll try better next week. I love you all! Please continue to write me. Every missionary loves mail. I can't wait to hear back from all of you! Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us. This is His true gospel.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Here are some pictures. They are not in order. Some are just before he left the MTC and some are his first week in Taiwan

Week Nine: I'm leaving on a Jet plane

Dear Family and Friends,

Well for those of you who haven't heard yet, I'm taking off today! In two hours actually... All the Taichung missionaries were supposed to leave on Thursday. During class yesterday we were called to the travel office and they said we were leaving now in 16 hours. What?! Needless to say, we had to cancel the rest of our classes and start doing laundry and pack. None of us were packed at all. It was a crazy night last night. But now we're all packed. We leave at 8:00 this morning and we take off for LAX around 11:00. From there we have a 3 hour layover until we fly straight to Taiwan. We're scheduled to get there tomorrow night at 8:30. And even with the international date line and the time zone changes, that's a long flight! I'm so excited! I can't believe how fast the time has flown already.

Last Tuesday night Elder Christofferson spoke at our Devotional. That's the 5th Apostle since arriving at the MTC. A record maybe? Yeah I think so. It was so cool. He spoke on the relationship of the Godhead and how they are different but support each other entirely. It was really good! He had a different approach to his talk as well. He asked for a lot of missionary feedback and had a few missionaries with microphones running around to those who wanted to read a scripture. It was pretty cool. It was so funny to see the nervousness in a few of them when he asked a follow-up question. I think the one thing that I loved the most about his talk is that it was entirely based out of the scriptures. He would have someone read a passage and then he'd talk about it and expound on it. It really showed the deeper meaning of the scriptures. Through studying, not just reading, you can learn so much.

Also as a surprise this past week, we were informed that we were going to be interviewed by NPR. My class was chosen to be interviewed. So a lady from NPR came and recorded us in our regular learning session. Then she said she wanted to interview a few people. The head of communications at the MTC had previously chosen a few sisters in my district. So they went off to be interviewd. When they came back, the lady said she wanted to interview Elder Plate and I. Gulp! So we went into another classroom and the head of communications at the MTC as well as the head of communications for the Church were there. Yeah you could say I was a little nervous. But once the lady left, he told us all that we did an amazing job. What a cool opportunity!

Friday was in field orientation. A lot of classes to prepare us for the field. And one thing that I really loved was learning to work with the members. Something that was really stressed was "every member a missionary." I absolutely loved that. They said the most baptisms come through member relations. Meaning, when you work with the members, more people feel welcome to come to church and take more discussions. Members friendshipping others is so critical. I challenge everyone to search for a fellowshipping opportunity. Charity is the pure love of Christ. Show more love towards others.

One of the final things I got to do was be a member at the TRC. There wasn't enough volunteers for us, so my district got to be volunteers and fellow missionaries in our zone got to teach us. I don't know how they felt about it, but I absolutely loved being able to see how far we've all progressed since arriving here. The two that taught Elder Plate and I were our zone leaders. They're also flying to Taichung with us. I'm so excited for them to jump into the work as well. We've all prepared well.

Every Sunday we have 4 films that we can choose from and watch. Last week, a bunch of us really wanted to watch Testaments for our last film so we can cry one last time. For those of you who haven't seen it, wait for the ending. It's a tear jerker. So we searched for President Brown and begged him. He said he wish he could, but they're on a schedule. So we kind of lost hope. Then on Saturday when we got the Sunday bulletin, we saw that Testaments was playing! And that's not all, they usually show a film in two different languages and he got them to show it in mandarin! So almost all of us from our Branch were there watching it in mandarin. That was an eye opener for me. But it was still so cool that I could understand a lot of it. And yes, even in mandarin, still a tear jerker. Like all the Elders. So great.

Well I need to be getting off and finalizing my packing. I love you all! Pray for me. Don't forget to write. If you need my Taiwan address, my parents have it. Here I go, out to preach the true gospel of Christ. Inviting others to come unto Him. What a blessing this is to serve. The Lord loves each and every one of us!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Week Eight

Dear Friends and Family,
What a great week this has been! I honestly can't believe another week has gone by. So much has happened since last week. I feel like time is different on a mission. So much happens in such short time, and time flies so fast.
We've had a few baptisms this past week! I had the privilege to interview two investigators for baptism last Wednesday. That has become a favorite thing of mine. It's a little difficult and scary doing it all in Chinese, but hearing them bear testimony and see their faith and change to come unto Christ is so amazing to experience. I'm excited to know that I have a few more interviews this week as well! My testimony has been greatly strengthened through these investigators coming to know that the church is true. So much is happening as my stay at the MTC comes to a close.
Speaking of leaving the MTC, I have some more exciting news. We all got our travel plans last week! It is now set in stone that we're leaving extremely early next Thursday morning, flying to Detroit, and then straight to Taiwan from there. Why we're going out to Detroit just to fly west again, I don't know. But we're all excited anyway. Longer flight! Approximately 17.5 hours I believe. I've also been called to be the travel leader to Taiwan. So I get to be responsible for all the missionaries going to Taichung. Everyone going to Taipei leaves next Tuesday. Our Branch President doesn't know why we're on different days flying to the same airport. It's so weird knowing everyone in my branch is going off to different places now. That will need some getting used to.
To more confirm the travel plans, everyone going to Taichung received a letter yesterday from our Mission President giving us further instruction of what will happen once we arrive. Included was a specific packing list for our backpacks since all our other bags won't arrive for a few days. That made packing a little more complicated. But now I just feel that much closer to leaving!
Since Sunday was Fast Sunday, we had mission conference with everyone at the MTC. That was so exciting! All of the MTC Presidency spoke, as well as the a District President, President Sonne, and his wife. And out of all of the talks, Sister Sonne's talk spoke to me the most. She talked about President Hinkley's 6 pillars of his testimony and how it made him such a strong believer of Christ. And that just makes you think, what are the pillars of my testimony? What do I have a testimony of that no one could convince me otherwise? Pretty deep thing to think about. I challenge all of you to ponder those questions. I absolutely loved hearing how she put it. What a great conference!
Today I had a pretty special opportunity to do a family name for an Elder in my Zone! I thought it was even more special because he is from China and these are all Chinese names. I guess that's proof that work is being done in China. Just in a very special way. It had a special impact on me as I thought back to when I first received my call. I instantly fell in love with the people of Taiwan. And knowing I helped a Chinese ancestor today really helped me grow closer to my mission and the people I'm about to go out and serve. The temple is such an amazing place. The spirit is so strong and I always learn something new.
Since this coming Sunday is Mother's day, mom, I'm sorry but we aren't allowed to call you here at the MTC. But I'll be able to call you at the airport on Thursday! Just a few days late right? So until then, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! I love you so much! I'm so blessed to have you as my mother! I miss you. Mothers are so great. The world would be kind of stuck in a rut if no one had a mother. Just look at the lost boys on Peter Pan. Everyone needs a mother. And I'm so blessed to have mine!
I love you all! Remember to write and keep me updated on your lives. But remember that next week I'll be heading out to Taiwan. So if you don't have the address, please contact my parents and get it from them. I would give it to you, but I don't have it memorized yet. Oops... Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us!

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Week Seven

Dear Friends and Family,

I honestly don't know what happened this last week. Where did it go?! So weird. Time is really starting to fly by, and I'm still in the MTC. I can't wait to finally fly out to Taiwan! We're supposed to get our travel plans this Thursday! That'll be so weird and exciting! Why are airports to epic?! Oh yeah, so come 2 weeks, I won't be at the MTC anymore. Just a heads up so you know where to send mail and stuff. But not until mid May.

So last Tuesday we had Elder Nelson come speak to us for Devotional. I can't believe how lucky I've been here. They say Apostles come usually every 3 or 4 weeks. But since I've been here, I've listened to 4. I absolutely love it! Elder Nelson talked about the 9 basic doctrine that needs to be taught to investigators. I'm sorry, but I can't remember them at the moment. But I do remember this: whenever the word "doctrines'' is said in the scriptures, it's always talking about false teachings and lies. Whenever the word ''doctrine'' is said, it's truth and God's teachings. See the difference? I'll give you a hint, one has an ''S'' at the end. So when we teach and talk about the teachings, it's the doctrine of Christ. Not doctrines. And I think it went very well with what Sister Nelson had to say. We are spreading the greatest news ever. What do we know that others don't? Pretty deep question, huh?

All the new missionaries finally came! I can't explain how exciting that was for all of us who have been here for 7 weeks. Oh by the way, my subject is how you say ''new missionaries.'' I could tell a few of you had some confused looks when you read that. Anyway, their first night here, we pretty much overloaded them to the point of crying. I just sat there as 3 or 4 missionaries gave more and more advice to this companionship in their residence hall. The look on their face was priceless! But yeah, it's really exciting having more than twice the amount of missionaries than before. I love helping them find their way around and answering questions about chinese.

A little over 3 weeks ago, Elder Plate and I challenged one of our investigators to be baptized. He liked the idea and wanted to prepare! So the his baptism date was set for this Saturday. A few lessons ago, we asked him if he was feeling ready, and he is! He knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. I'm so excited! So his baptism this Saturday! I'm practically exploding with joy. What an amazing blessing for him.

Since we're now entering our last few weeks and we have the new group of missionaries here, our teachers said they're going to be much more intense on us. And from that point on, we dove into no mercy. If we do something wrong with our teaching, they stop us, tell us what we did wrong, and then tell us to do it right. It's intimidating but so exciting! I really feel so pumped after every lesson because it's like language and gospel teaching boot camp. And our mission purpose is our boot camp mission statement.

Just last night as we were wrapping up our lesson in class, we were just talking about teaching moments. Elder Plate brought up our moment with our investigator ready to be baptized. And while he was speaking, he referred to me as ''Elder Buckwalter.'' As always. But this time hit me so much more than ever before. Elder Buckwalter. I am a missionary. I'm out here inviting as many people as I can to come unto Christ and be a part of His church and His restored gospel. How powerful of a knowledge is that? What an amazing blessing. I love every moment I have. I love serving the Lord.

I love you all. Remember to write me. I love getting updates on all my family and friends! Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us!

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter