Taiwan Week 52: A Reunion With Elder Allen And A Family

Dear family and friends,

 

This past week has been such a week of miracles! I really feel so blessed to have had such a week. Monday we were able to work with a less active lady. She really opened up to us and we feel like we have her trust now. Although it was super hard to hear her. The rain was flooding down and lighting was flashing everywhere.

 

Tuesday we had to get up nice and early to catch a bus to Zhanghua for interviews and planner checks. While we were there, we were instructed on how to use this new map system that our mission just created. It has every member mapped out. It'll help us be able to find all the less active members whose addresses are just too hard to find. All the wards have been given the software and can make the updates on who has moved or has phone number changes. It's super cool.   I also got to do planner checks with Elder Allen. It was super fun. We also got mission T-shirts! Whether or not I'll wear mine in public, I don't know. But it's a good relaxing shirt.

 

That after noon we biked out to a far away area by the ocean to meet with our Elders Quorum President to visit his less active wife. She works on Sundays. She works at this restaurant that is all seafood. Dad... I was force fed roughly 40 oysters... I wanted to cry. The things you gotta do to show your love. And she is really nice. I hope we can somehow help her come back. That night we got to meet with Chen mama. She has a ton of interesting questions. But her desire is there!

 

Wednesday we had a bit of fun trying to contact in the rain. I'm not a huge fan of it. It needs to be a storm for me to love it. But if it's just whatever rain, I almost fear getting wet. That night we had a miracle new student at English! She called us earlier in the day and asked if we taught the English class. Her friend told her about it and gave them our number. She has to speak English a lot for work. When she came and registered, I asked her if she wanted to hear a little bit about our church. She politely declined. But after our spiritual share, she came up to me and was curious about the difference between our church and other Christian churches. We got to share a little bit about the restoration. She's still a little iffy about meeting with us, but her look on English class, missionaries, and the church is really good. She's super excited to come back again.    I possibly scarred my Advanced class though. The lesson was on food and I told them about a few American food eating contests. They looked horrified... Oops...

 

Thursday was a pretty normal day. But that night all four of us biked to one of our far away areas to visit a member family for dinner. We got super lost. And it seemed like no one in the town knew their way around. But when we found them, we had a really sweet lesson. Their family is really cool. Super humble.

 

Friday Elder Allen came to be with us for the day! It was such an amazing day! We had so much fun on the streets finding new investigators. Everything was just so much fun. Us and the other Elders had pizza at the church with the Bishop to discuss the new map project. Elder Allen fell asleep... Haha! Then we got lost trying to find a potential investigator. He was a former. When we finally found him, the lesson went really well. He's a lot older than he sounded on the phone. But he's super willing to meet again. It was such a fun exchange with Elder Allen.

 

Saturday morning we played basketball with a lot of ward members. The ward is getting super unified. During the afternoon we used the new maps to find some less active members. We ended up finding a teenage girl who got baptized with her mom. Her mom wasn't there, so we got to talk with the girl and she wanted to come to church! She's still pretty good friends with some of the young women in the ward.  And she's super amazing at playing the piano. That night we had a family come to the church that we set up. A mom and her 10 year old twin sons. One of the sons does English competitions and wanted help. We helped him a bit. The mom loved the feel of the church and loved singing a few hymns with us. They're a super willing family. I'm so excited to meet with them some more.

 

Sunday Chen mama came to church! She had to drag her husband along, but he enjoyed it too. And they stayed for the full 3 hours! It was super amazing. After church she said "It's really weird. Every time you come over to my house, it stops raining. Only when you come over. Never before with other missionaries. And then every question I ask you ends up getting answered at church." Well yeah! The blessings of church. As for me being able to stop the rain, I can't describe that. But she enjoyed church.   Then last night we had a big FHE at a members house. They cooked some pretty traditional stuff. And they took pity on me for being the only American. So they also cooked chicken nuggets and french fries for me. They ended up eating most of them though. Haha!

 

What a week. There were so many miracles. I'm super excited to see how this weeks goes. There are miracles for those who trust in the Lord. The work needs to be done! I love you all. I hope your summer is going pretty well. It's getting pretty hot here. And it hasn't started yet...

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 51: Super Different Week

Dear family and friends,

 

The rest of the week since Wednesday has been pretty weird. Elder Gan and I are getting along pretty well. Obviously some differences, but he's really great. Since there are 3 Taiwanese in my apartment, which is also my entire district, it's a little different. But we all talked about it and have a better understanding now. It's a lot of fun.

The temple was so amazing! The entire ride up, I was talking to Elder Edwards. He is one move call below me, so we knew each other in the MTC. It was pretty nice just talking about our experiences here. He just passed his year mark on the mission. And I just passed my year mark on island. I absolutely loved the peaceful relaxed feeling that the temple gave me. It felt so great. It's like going home. Sister Worthington is being trained in my last area! So they're zone came to the temple with us and I got to see her. She's looking so excited for missionary work.

 

That night we had English class. It was so relaxing to teach the advanced class, since none of the other missionaries can teach it. Elder Yeh's English is pretty good, so him and Elder Gan are teaching the beginner class, and Elder Zhu and I are teaching the advanced. So there's a pretty experienced English and Chinese speaker in both classes.

 

Thursday we had an ok finding day. We're just trying so hard to find new investigators. The best way is through the members, so we're doing our very best to work with the ward. That night we got to meet with our RC's mom again. She's doing pretty great. She has a ton of questions about the Book of Mormon. And her husband doesn't quite want her to go to church, because he doesn't want to go to church every week. So we're trying to work really hard to help him. He loves us missionaries and a lot of the ward.

 

Friday we had zone leader exchanges. Elder Dailey came with me to my area. We had a lot of fun going out to one of our secondary areas for a few lessons. While trying to visit a less active member, we ran into a couple from Canada! They got here a few months ago to teach English and stumbled across our less active's food store and love it. So we talked to him a lot. He also knows another Canadian in the town that's a member and invited him to go to church with him. So we'll see if that went down.

 

Saturday we found a former and was able to set up to meet with him again! And a former called us and asked why we haven't visited him for a while. So we went to visit him. He's a little special, but loves the missionaries. By the time we went to exchange back, the other Elders were in the middle of a lesson. So we just contacted the streets while waiting for them. That night we had an FHE. A returned missionary, Brother Mikkleson, came back to visit his RC's and came as well. It was a lot of fun. A lot of people showed up.

 

Sunday at church Chen mama came with her husband! She dragged him to church that morning and promised just one hour this week. So after Sacrament meeting, they were preparing to leave. The husband had to go to the bathroom, so we sat down with her. She said she has a huge desire to get baptized, but doesn't know what to do. We're really going to do all we can to work with her.   That night we went on splits with the ward and visited some less actives, and then we met up and went to a part member family's house. The dad who isn't a member really liked us. It was such a great lesson. And all while it was pouring down more rain per hour than Utah gets in 3 years.

 

And that was the rest of my week! I'm having a good time. It's been such a different week; and it'll just keep getting more and more different. I'm excited to see what happens each day! I love you all! Thank you all for the letters of support.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 50: The Biggest Change Yet

Dear family and friends,

 

It's the start of a new transfer. And wow is it a big one. Elder Greer has moved to Tainan, and I have a Taiwanese companion! His name is Elder Gan. He's a super amazing missionary. He started his mission the same time as Elder Greer. So they know each other. It's super interesting because I'm in a 4-man with 3 Taiwanese missionaries. The one and only American. I didn't ever see that coming. But we're all having fun!

I'm also writing super early in the morning because we have the temple trip today! I'm super excited. It's thrown off our whole week though.

 

So last week we had some pretty great experiences. On Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting in Zhanghua. It was on contacting. It was pretty good. I know I need to improve my contacting skills. Afterwards Elder Zhu came with me on exchanges. We didn't get back for so long. That night we went out to a less active in the middle of nowhere. He's the one with 6 or so dogs. When we got there, they were fixing to attack! The less active called us and gave us an excuse as to why he can't come out. Elder Zhu said "I'm not leaving until I get past these dogs and see this less active." So we ended getting up on the wall surrounding the house and walking along it. The dogs were just waiting for us to fall. It was so scary. But we got there!

 

Wednesday for English class we had our party! It was a lot of fun. Elder Greer and I introduced everyone to 4-square. They all loved it so much. And we made root beer from scratch. Everyone loved it.

 

Thursday we biked out to Erlin to meet a few investigators. We got really lucky to have all of them come through. Especially since they were in the most random places that they agreed to. So I hope they will keep wanting to meet with us! That night we biked out to this far away area to a guy that Elder Greer found on exchanges with Elder Yeh. He was pretty willing, but the rest of his family wasn't and wouldn't let us in. It was pretty sad.

Friday we biked out to the college and met some really cool kids. One lesson ended kinda bad, so we were feeling pretty down. But then out of nowhere I see a kid that was in my ward in Yuanlin! It was absolutely amazing. He said he was going to college there. I told him that if he lives at the school, he should go to the ward in Xihu because it's closer. He didn't even know Xihu had a ward. So he was super excited. He's so cool.

Saturday we got to skype home. I'm pretty happy for that. I love getting to see you guys! We then got to go down to Erlin again. There was a county wide youth basketball tournament going on at a school. So there were so many students everywhere! And a bunch of them were in our area! We got to sit down with a few of them and share about the church. They were even pretty excited about prayer. It was really cool.

 

Sunday morning we found out that Elder Greer was moving, so we were pretty down. It was a rough day, but we had a great lesson with our recent convert's mom. Her husband is a little iffy about her getting baptized. So we'll have to work with that. But our Peike was super great to help her keep feeling that it's the right thing to do.

Monday Elder Greer had an early train in Zhanghua. So I was waiting there for 3 hours with another missionary. Elder Gan came and we hurried back because Monday was a normal proselyting day. We had a few lessons scheduled that day that just perfectly fell through because of rain or got called into work at the last minute. It was rough. But we had a good time getting him to get to know the area.

 

Yesterday after DTM, we went biking all over our area. We had set up to meet a few members. A few of them in areas that I had never been to before. So it was a crazy day biking day. But we got to all of them on time! It was amazing. I was sweating so much.

 

And that's pretty much been my week. It's just been pretty crazy all over. But we're getting settled in and getting to work! I love you all! I'm so excited to go to the temple today! I love the feeling inside. I know that through the temple, families can be sealed together forever!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 49: A Group Ride To Church

Dear family and friends,

 

This past week has been pretty interesting. And sadly, I switched planners today, so everything is escaping my mind! But from what I do remember:

 

Tuesday we had a great DTM on finding. And more specifically on effective ways to find in our area. I think that'll be really great to help us focus on what we can do out here to find those prepared souls. That afternoon we biked out to a college in one of our secondary areas. It was a golden place! We started talking to this one guy and it turns out he's from Malaysia and speaks English! So we got to sit down with him and share about God's plan for us. It was really great. So many people in college that still have no idea what they're going to after they graduate. They just say they'll wait until they graduate to find that out.  Afterwards we went to a less active's house. We've been trying to work with the ward to get people together to fix his engine. He showed it to us and the task became impossible. He wants us to take it out of his car. Seeing all the different wire and tubes just made me realize that I have no idea about cars. So we're still trying to help him out a bit.

 

Wednesday we had a really great miracle at English Class! There have been a few new students every week, but it's super hard to talk to them afterwards because two of them are brother and sister and the rest are friends of the brother, and they all get picked up by the mom right after class. The brother has been coming for a while and doesn't have too much interest in the church. But his little sister started coming a few weeks ago. I could see that she has a bit of curiosity. I had planned a spiritual share out, but that night I had this feeling to switch it to the Book of Mormon. During the English meeting before class, the other Elders brought up and investigator in my class that just started reading the Book of Mormon, but is a little confused. I knew I had to share about the Book of Mormon! When it came time for the spiritual share, I let the new girl flip through the Book of Mormon as I shared about it. She looked so amazed. Once class was over, I asked her if she wanted to keep the book. With a huge glow in her eyes, she asked "can I?!" We have also set up to meet with her really quickly after class this Wednesday! Such a huge miracle.

 

Thursday it was raining pretty hard, so we got a little nervous for our plans. We headed out to the college again, but there was no one in sight. Every populated place dies out here once there's a little rain. It made the day pretty rough. Then that night we were heading to the Chen family's house to see how the mom is doing. We had confirmed with the dad and the daughter the night before. And when we got there, we were just talking with them for a few minutes. We finally asked if the mom was in the shower or something and they both said she was asleep. That caught us off guard. We were a little confused because we set up to follow up on how she feels about the goal we discussed the week before. So that didn't get to happen.

 

Friday after weekly planning we had a very interesting experience. We were trying to decide if we should cook inside or go out to eat. We suddenly got a call from the Xihu police. They said there's some foreigner at the station that can't get home and they need our help translating. Looks like we're eating out. We got there and there was an American that wasn't quite aware of where he was or who he was sitting with a bunch of police. He had gotten a hold of his wife, who lives in Taibei! He somehow got on a bus or something and ended up in Xihu. He didn't know how he got there. So I talked to his wife on the phone and she told me I HAD to convince him to stay there and wait for her to come get him. It took some time because he wanted to just get in a taxi, but it worked out and he stayed with the police. We ate hotpot for lunch.

 

We then biked out to Erlin. We had come across a bike path halfway there last time and then found where the path starts in Xihu. So we took the path all the way and it was way beautiful. Once we got there, we just did some hardcore looking. We found a sweet kid that was very willing. We got to pray with him before he left. We then found a guy at a 7-11 and started sharing with him. Then out of nowhere, the first kid came up and sat down with us. After we prayed with the second kid, the first kid started bearing testimony of prayer that he gained 20 minutes before! It was so cool. On the way home, we got way lost. It was dark, we were on the trail, and the only thing out here is rice. We were beyond lost. And there were so many bugs. We got back to the church for a lesson and my pocket had probably over 100 dead bugs inside. Super gross.

 

Saturday we had to head out to Erlin again for a lesson. But before we headed out, I got surgery on my LEFT toe. There will be no more problems from now on. Nothing like a 5 minute surgery. But you were right mom. It's like they're injecting fire into you. A shot in the toe hurts so much. It hurt way more this time too. Our plans fell through in Erlin, but we came across a family that owns this food cart thing in front of a school. Elder Greer found them before I moved here, but we could never find them since. We just happened to take a road we had never taken before and it let to that school with them. They're a super sweet family. Hopes for the future!

Sunday we got to pick up this cool little kid that's an RC and ride bikes to church together. Halfway there, we met up with a few other people that had been baptized in the past few years riding together. It was just a party to church! It was a really good fast Sunday too. It made a good end to the week.

 

Well I love you all! I'm super excited to skype this week! Thank you for all the support! Keep those letters coming! I miss you all! NEVER forget to pray. It helps your day so much.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 48: Are We There Yet?

Dear family and friends,

It was a pretty crazy week. We had a few activities that we knew were going to take away a lot of our time, so we had to go crazy on the days that we had time.

Tuesday we biked super fast out to a college an hour away and found two really cool guys in a row that wanted to sit with us and learn more. It was really cool, and the 2nd guy was just around the corner from the first. It was cool. During the 1st guy, a ton of sirens started going off. It was super loud and no one was freaking out. I was way confused. I then got a call from the zone leaders, who also had sirens going off where they were, and they said they do this yearly drill to practice the police preparedness just in case China invades. Super funny. So all the streets were shut down and had policemen lining every intersection. It was really cool.  After all the biking, we were super tired while doing English proselyting. I had no energy at all. But that night we went by the B-ball court to find some new investigators. I sat with this cool guy that just seemed really relieved to be talking to me. He does the cool traditional puppet shows. Cool guy.

Wednesday was the long day. We had to get up at 5:00 to get on a bus to Zhanghua. From there we took an hour and a half train to Jiayi for Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun. Elder Allen said he got to do assistant exchanges with Nantou a week before and got to see all our recent converts. But my first family baptized that I got to help set a temple goal with said they're moving to China. And they're now already there. Super depressed. But I have their email address!   The conference was really good. We talked about how to keep missionary work exciting everyday so it doesn't feel the same everyday. We also got a new Taiwan Taizhong mission clarifications book that goes a little more into detail from the missionary handbook on what is legal and allowed in our mission.

After the conference, I had a district leader meeting that made it so we had to take a later train than the rest of the missionaries. So we're walking with some other companionships in our zone that are district leaders and we realize that we'll have no time to eat before English class. So we stop at the Macker's (McDonald's) on the way to get food for the train. Elder Greer ordered an apple pie that took FOREVER to cook. We weren't sure why, but it made it so we had to sprint to the train station. We barely made it. It was crazy. Then we had to take a bus from Zhanghua back to our area, so we were 45 minutes late to English and the other Elders had to start without us.

Thursday was super rough. We were let in by an old couple. They didn't have a whole lot of interest. And then their 95 year old mom was walking around outside, so they just went to take care of her. We biked forever out to Erling just for our lessons to fall through, so we biked back. It was a long day.  Friday was the same. It was raining, and no one wanted to talk. It was rough.

Saturday we had to bike out to our furthest area because the other Elders called and set up a less active sister and then realized she lived in our area. But she really wanted to meet with us and didn't want to change locations. So all in all, we biked about 3.5 hours to her house in the rain. Our keisters were sore! (is that how you spell it?) And it was quite the experience. Actually, it was the WEIRDEST lesson ever. Mom, write this down and I'll tell you all when I get home: Dacheng, LA lady, power. Then we had to bike back, which felt like forever as the sun was going down and the wind was blowing against us. We had two amazing lessons with some part member families though! One lady we're working with that is less active. We're trying to help her come back to church and help her 10 year old daughter get baptized. The girl loves church, but her mom has only taken her once. After talking to her for a bit, she just opened up about what's keeping her from coming. We also met with our RC and her parents who have been investigating as long as our RC. Her mom also opened up about why she won't come to church.

Sunday we see the less active with her two daughters walk into to Church! It was sooo great! Then we get a call from our RC saying her whole family is coming to church! After Sacrament meeting, the mom said that a ton of her questions were answered in that meeting. I was so happy! Then last night we were seriously lost in the middle of the rice fields. It was insane.

And that was my week! We got permission from President Bishop to take a bus to Yuanlin today and eat at Shitou with Elder James and Lathen. My investigator there, Jack, got baptized last Saturday! Super happy. So we're about to head out.

I love you all! Keep your chin up! Keep smiling. The Lord loves each and every one of us! Always trust in His guidance!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

 

Taiwan Week 47: I Love Conference!

Dear family and friends,

Sorry, this letter might be a little shorter. I got a letter from an RC in Tainan and trying to reply in Chinese is super hard. 10 minutes, 11 characters typed. I really need to practice the way they type here.

So this last week has been super great! It's been raining so much all week. I've been way cold all week. Last Tuesday we went out to Zhanghua for zone training meeting. It was pretty cool seeing everyone in the zone. Especially since we got lost trying to get to the chapel. It was the first time any of us had been to the Zhanghua chapel before. It was a great conference though! All on the doctrine of numbers and key indicators.

Right after, I got to go on zone leader exchanges with Elder Teng (who trained Elder Fiso), while Elder Larson went with Elder Greer to Xihu. Right as the exchange started, it started pouring. It hasn't poured that hard since summer last year. It was coming down hard. Even with our rain gear, we were soaked. So we're riding around the streets looking for new investigators, completely soaked, my now soaked toe that had surgery the day before. It was a great day. We had some really great lessons and finding experiences.

Wednesday we switched back in the late afternoon and did some English Procelyting until dinner and English class. I'm super surprised at how many teenagers there are compared to adults at our English class. I've never had it before. It's so much fun working with them. Elder Zhu and I have a fun time teaching. To help them practice their English conversation and share about the importance of our Agency, we had Elder Zhu be completely under the classes control. Everything they said, he said. Everything they told him to do, he would do. And his goal was to get me to go play Frisbee on the beach. And based on how well they did it, I could either want to go, or be really creeped out. They struggled... It was so funny! But it got them to see how important it is that we can choose for ourselves because of agency.

Thursday we went out to Erlin to do some finding. It was a hard day. The people we wanted to visit weren't there. No one was on the streets, and tracting didn't quite work either. And it was raining again. By the end of the day, we were back in Xihu and went to visit our recent convert whose mom is also investigating the church.We're trying our best to work with her to get her to pray for an answer. If she can do that and come to church with her daughter, she'd know it's true. The whole family is super amazing and willing to let us work with them.

Friday was pretty rough too. We had a lot of finding time and because of rain, no one was willing to meet. But Saturday we had a really great day. Elder Greer's recent convert from Taizhong came and and had breakfast with us and a member family. Then we met a lot of willing people on the streets. It was an amazing morning and afternoon of finding. From 2:00-9:00 we had general conference. It was super amazing! I love conference so much. There were so many talks that stood out to me. Elder Greer and I watched it in the Clerks office in English. It was weird being so far away from everyone else. But it was a great conference.

Sunday was also really great with conference in the morning! Then while tracting last night, we had willing people house after house. They let us in or set up other times to meet. It was so cool. The week ended pretty great.

I love you all so much! I love that we have a living prophet to guide us nowadays. I love the teachings and guidance we received! Send me a letter of your favorite talk and why!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 46: Turn Right At The Rice Field, And Then Left At The Rice Field

Dear family and friends,

So I got my package, but I'm trying to get rid of it as fast as possible so I can keep my diet going. It's been a very painful week as I already finished a bag of Reeces and the chocolate eggs. Elder Greer and I both got our Easter Packages on Tuesday and we both were very excited, but groaned at how much candy we had to get rid of before we could jump back onto our diet. Oh by the way mom, when I saw the already addressed envelope, my first thought was that you just wrote that just in case customs sent it back and didn't know where or something. So I ripped it up and threw it away. Then I read your letter and was like, oops... So I'll get another one filled out soon!

But last week was pretty exciting! We pretty much had to start over on finding new investigators. So we did a lot of finding. On Tuesday we had DTM. It was my first one as District leader, so I had a lot of fun conducting training. This week was on Faith, Diligence, and Obedience in finding . We all got pumped to go out and find, because the Xihu north Elders (I'm Xihu south) are trying to focus on finding right now too.

We then went to visit a recent convert that has gone less active. He has a ton of crazy vicious dogs. Elder Greer didn't tell me. He thought that it would be funny to let me go down this thin trail by his house where all the dogs were. I go in and one dog starts barking and snapping at me. I get a little freaked out and get past the next one, but the third one looked so vicious right in front of me. So I turn around and Elder Greer was basically on the ground laughing. I didn't have to go in because the recent convert will come out to us. So now I had to make it back past the first two crazy dogs. It was pretty funny. We sat with him and he brought up his son. We're hoping to meet with the son now and hopefully get the two to come to church together.   We then were taken out to eat by a family that just passed their year mark being baptized. Super cute kids. They're super amazing. The dad is the ward clerk.

Wednesday we contacted out to Erlin and got way lost. Elder Greer had only been here for 3 weeks before I got here, so we're pretty much discovering the area together. We made it out and tracted. The first house let us in. He's this really awesome cop. He was way curious how we're different than other Christian churches. His wife is Christian but not really active, so we're really hoping to meet with him again. He's really willing, but his time is super hard to work with.   That night we had English. Since we have a companionship of Americans and a companionship of Taiwanese, we split up to teach the two classes that we have here. It was way effective because we had someone that speaks perfect English and one that speaks perfect Chinese. We're really hoping to jump up the English Program here.

Thursday we got to head up to Zhanghua to do grave sweeping. The past few days have been a national holiday to go clean your ancestors graves. We go and clean the graves that haven't been taken care of in years, or have a no name tombstone. It was so much fun! The whole zone was there. And of course we chose the few graves that had the most weeds and trees grown in. It was beyond hard. But we had fun.   That night we were tracting the outskirts of Xihu and it started raining. The houses are pretty spaced apart. We were let in by the first house we tracted. It was this sweet Wei family. They youngest daughter, who is 18, was the only child home and wanted to take a picture with us. It was funny. The whole family is super sweet and is so curious how we're different from other Christian churches. So we had a sweet lesson with them.  Then the second house we tracted let us in too! But this house had nearly 20 people. Lots of extended family. They were also really curious how we were different. I've never had so many investigators curious about that. It's so weird! It was such a miraculous night.

Friday after weekly planning we went out to do some basketball contacting. That's pretty much asking to join some kids in playing basketball and getting their interest while playing. I haven't done it since I was with Elder Hoopes in Tainan. The only problem this time was that it was pouring rain. SOOO much rain. We found these brothers and played with them. Nothing like street ball in the rain. It was like a movie. They were pretty good too. We got their interest for English class. The rest of the day was hard because no one was out on the streets. But that night while we were about to head out to tract the outskirts again, a guy calls us over to this cafe. He tells us to sit with him and his wife and bought us hot chocolate and cheesecake. They were a sweet family that were about to head back to Zhanghua and wanted to know why we're still working even in the rain. There are just so many miracles out here. Everyone is curious!

Saturday we went out to Pitou and got extremely lost coming back! It was so bad. It's nothing but rice fields out here. We sat with a less active member that has two little daughters. The older daughter who is 10 seems to have a lot of interest. And we think the mom misses church as well. So we're really excited to work with them some more.   That night we had FHE. It's the first one this ward has done in a while. So we put it on. Everyone that came had so much fun. They're excited to do it some more.

Sunday was really sweet. The church here is really pretty. The ward is pretty big too. And everyone is willing to help out the missionaries. It was a good day at church. We don't get to watch Conference until this weekend.  Then last night we went with our ward mission leader to a lady's house. We tracted into her earlier in the week, so this was the first time we got to sit with her. She has two kids. Her husband has no interest at all, but she seems to be really willing to meet. Our ward mission leader helped out so much and she's going to bring her kids to English class this week! It was such a good week!

Yep, that's pretty much it. I love you all! I love getting to let you all know what I've been doing! Please keep writing me and keeping me updated! I love all the letters I've gotten. I love letters. Have a great week!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Kai Buckwalter