Taiwan Week 15: Set Backs And Miracles

Dear family and friends,

What a week it has been! We've had some great success, as well as some troubling times. We have mission standards; one is to get 30 sit down lessons a week, and another is to reach our adding goal each day. We've been struggling on both of those this past week. We would come in contact with a lot of people, but they have no interest. The lack of success started hitting us pretty hard. We were pretty behind and didn't have a whole lot of lessons set up. It was a rough first few days of the week.

Wednesday was pretty amazing though. At english we had a combined spiritual share at the end. It was on the Atonement. We had a bag of candy and each person had the choice to either take a piece or not. And when they did, I had to do 4 push ups. When they didn't, I still had to do 4 push ups. It was easy at first, but it started adding up really fast. Everyone was really confused as to why I had to do it no matter what. They were scared to accept the candy because they didn't like seeing me shaking and sweating. A few people started tearing up. But I still had to do it anyway. 29 people later, I was done. Face red, arms shaking, covered in sweat. Whether we accept Christ or not, He still paid the sins of everyone. He did it because He loves all of us. Regardless of the pain, He suffered until it was finished. It was such a great lesson. Even though I was a little sore.

Thursday we biked down to our secondary area, Qieding. It's a really northern part of Gaoxiong. We biked along the beach on the way down. It was so beautiful. There isn't a whole lot in Qieding. We have an older member down there. He's really active, but the bishop wanted us to visit him every time we go down there since he doesn't get visits that often. He wasn't home though. So we went along the docks. It's a big fishing area and there are a ton of boats. A lot of men from India and the Filipines come here to work for fishermen. They don't get paid that much, but it's more than they make back home. They go home after a year or so for a few months, and then come back for another year or two. It sounds so rough. Because of a coming typhoon, most of them were docked for the day. We came across 7 Filipino guys by the dock kicking back. We sat with them and shared a bit. They were all Christians of some kind. One's wife is LDS. We told them we'd come back with Togalog Book of Mormons and they all liked that. They were really nice.

That night we met with a less active and talked about goal setting. When you set goals and continue to check them, you'll progress. We helped him set goals for the week and we're going to follow up this week. He's really cool. He just has a hard time making it to church because of work. A lot of members here are struggling in that sense. People are taking jobs as they come and don't have much say in the hours they work. We got to meet with a few members that are struggling with coming to church because of work. One was the old Elders Quorum President. He said he's only going to give it another week or so, and if he can't get Sundays off, he's going to look for another job, because he misses church! So sweet! Do what you can to get to church. The blessings will come through diligence.

Friday was a little rough but also so amazing! We met with one of our investigators and he didn't want to progress at all. All he wanted to do was argue with us and tell us we were wrong. It was rought. But during our meeting with him, one of our other investigators, Kevin, came, so we split up and I sat with Kevin while Elder Hoopes finished up. Kevin is doing so good! I asked him what he's read so far and he's been up through 1 Nephi 18. I asked him what his favorite part has been and he starts talking about the Tree of Life all excited! So we went through it and the symbolism of it, which he loved. Then I wrapped that into the Doctrine of Christ. At this point, Elder Hoopes had just finished up with our other lesson, which I guess kept going more and more downhill. Rough... You can't convince them all!... So we continued with Kevin and he was accepting everything. Our plan was to teach the Doctrine of Christ and the Word of Wisdom, but since we were running low on time, we thought of just doing the Doctrine. We asked him if he had any questions and he said "It keeps talking about commandments in the Book of Mormon. What exactly are those? I heard there's something about no drinking alcohol or something." And we were awe struck. So we went on with the Word of Wisdom! He said there will be a few small changes he'll have to make, but he's completely willing. GOLDEN! We also went to lunch with him the next day, to a burger place owned by a guy that went to college in California that makes a super sweet chili burger. We decided to give him a taste of American food, and he's going to give us a taste of pure Taiwanese food. I'm a little scared for that...

We got to sit with another investigator on Saturday that is also loving to read the Book of Mormon. He's accepting everything about the gospel and he wants to be baptized, but he's nervous to talk to his parents about joining the church. He originally just came to our english class, so he's nervous to tell his parents that he wants to join the church teaching him english. So we're just going to work slowly with him. But he's very good. I'm excited for him.

Church was really great. Kevin came and loved every bit of it. He was talking to people everywhere he went and said he loves the atmosphere. He thinks our bishop is intense, as do I. His voice is the spitting image (or I guess spitting sound?) of James Earl Jones. He's so cool. And Kevin liked learning the more in depth stuff in each class; which was the "Doctrine of the Father" in Priesthood and "Honesty" in Gospel Principles.

That night, we decided to go crazy with looking for adds. We need more people to teach, and we want to hit our weekly adding goal. So we went ALL OVER the city talking to people on the streets and finding those who were interested. In the end, we almost doubled our weekly adds in a little over an hour. It was crazy, but fun.

And that's my week! It was a lot of fun! I had a lot of really cool experiences and some pretty weird ones too. But if you want to know about those, you gotta write me a letter. I know, so devious. I love you all! Thank you all so much for the love and support! Until next week.

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 14: Things Are Heating Up (Literally)

Dear family and friends,
This past week has been so intense! To start off, it's a lot hotter
here. Like, hot. I down a ton of water each day and I'm so drained at
the end of the day. Here's a little bit about my area. I'm over Anping
chu, Zhongxi chu, and Nan chu. Those are the districts of the city.
It's pretty much the west/middle/south part of Tainan. It's so cool
here! We have the ocean right there and there's a huge beach. Our
apartment is on the 16th floor. It's just us two and it's a pretty
roomy place. We live right in front of a river, and we have a sweet
view of the city. There aren't any mountains, but there are plenty of
tall buildings. The city is way packed! It's what you imagine when you
think of an asian city. It's just filled with people.
My district is really cool. We have the zone leaders and the sisters.
They're all really sweet. We have fun and learn a lot! Our building
has 2 wards, both starting around the same time. The zone leaders go
to the other one, and the sisters split up and cover both. Our ward
has about 80 people each week. They're all so friendly!
When I first got here, Elder Hoopes said we're pretty much starting
from scratch because almost everyone he had the week before either
never answered their phone, or weren't progressing at all. And 7 of
them dropped him in the same day. That's rough. So we had 3
investigators and a few long term investigators that struggle to
progress, but still want to learn more. It was hard, but fun work to
find new people. We actually had a self contact that wanted to know
the difference between his church and ours. And he set up for the same
day! That was lucky. But he doesn't really want to accept any truth.
He likes to Bible bash more and try to prove us wrong.
On Wednesday we had a district english procelyting. It was really fun
going to this HUGE intersection and passing out flyers whenever there
was a red light. Sooo many scooters... English was a lot of fun. I'm
over the advanced class again, which is supposed to be conversation,
and they don't like to talk. I've never been so outgoing in my life,
trying to get people to talk. They're all really cool though and start
asking a ton of questions if I say something they don't understand.
Afterwards there was a guy in the beginner class that had some
interest in the gospel! Elder Hoopes had two guys in his class as
well. So we split up and I got to teach this guy. He was so excited to
learn more. I taught him about prayer and had my peike bear his
testimony on prayer. We had the guy say his first prayer and loved it.
When I invited him to pray daily, he was so willing and was nearly
bouncing around. It was so great!
Thursday was really great as we got to travel further south and visit
a less active member, as well as go along the coast and visit another
less active member. They're both really sweet. Very friendly. And one
of them came to church! That night we had an absolutely AMAZING lesson
with another guy that came to english class the night before. He's
just finishing up with college and wants to know the meaning of life.
GOLDEN! He had our little pamphlet thing that we hand out to everyone
and read the back page, which has questions of the soul and chapters
in the Book of Mormon to answer them. We introduced him to the Book of
Mormon and picked out a few questions that he was pondering. Elder
Hoopes and I would take turns finding scriptures in the chapter that
can help him understand, and he was completely mind blown. We gave him
a Book of Mormon and he said he will for sure read it. We then brought
up baptism and invited him to be baptized, and the Spirit was just
swirling around us! He very happily said yes and committed to the
soonest date possible. So sweet! Sadly it was dropped because he had a
family thing and had to go to it instead of church. But he kept
calling us to apologize and wants to continue meeting. That's a good
sign. We're meeting with him tonight!
Friday was pretty weird. We had weekly planning as usual, and set off.
After contacting a ton of people and finding some really great people
that set up for later, we tracted in this pretty creepy back alley.
Like the cats were making that scary cat noise, there was a mysterious
water drip coming from nowhere, and there was a house with an open
doorway and no light inside. It was creepy. And no success... We
headed more south through a cemetery to find some less active members
and ended up sitting with a guy we met on the street. He's really
humble and loved hearing about the restoration and hope. He didn't
make it to church like he said, but I hope we get to meet with him
again.
Saturday started really good, and ended really bad. Two people that we
contacted into the day before set up to meet on Saturday and both made
it. And it just so happened that the place for meeting both of them
was in the same area that was completely packed full of people. It was
like the Summerfest, but just a regular shopping area. They were both
really cool, and one wants to keep meeting. He just doesn't think his
parents will approve. So we'll have to work on that as well. Once 3:30
hit, we had no success whatsoever. No more people added. We went to a
few different areas and no one wanted to talk. An hour of tracting
with no success. An hour of finding less actives with no success. And
my box lid broke. It was a rough night.
Church was a lot of fun. I met a guy in the ward whose fuyin zhanglao
has the same surname as me. My surname is rare and a little weird. So
I was really happy to know there was another one once upon a time. And
there really isn't a good translation for fuyin zhanglao. Direct
translation is Gospel Elder, which means the Elder that taught and
baptized you. None of us know a good way of saying that in English. We
were surprised to have 3 people come to church. One was the guy that
wanted to Bible bash. And then the other 2 were friends that Elder
Hoopes found playing basketball over a week ago. They all just showed
up right before Sacrament meeting started. It was pretty cool. Last
night was ok, we visited a long term investigator and a less active
that came to church that day. He has a really hard home life and does
his best. We read 2 Nephi 4 with him and talked through Nephi's
experience. He interpreted it so well and the Spirit was so strong. He
committed to read everyday again and we're going to meet up with him
later this week.
Today I really dove into 2 Nephi 9 and really dissected it verse by
verse. It's so good! We're planning on meeting with the Lin guy
(what's the purpose of life), and are going to be going through the
Plan of Salvation. So that'll be really fun!
About me, my arms are extremely tan, I think I've gained about 8
pounds of muscle (I got a good workout going), and my hairline is
receding. I'm convinced. And that's my week! I love you all! I can't
wait to tell you about this coming week! I'm loving it here. Please
continue to write and let me know what's going on with your lives!
Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us.

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 13: A Whole New World

Dear family and friends,

Well, it happened. Nantou area was shut down. It was pretty rough telling all our investigators that it won't be us next time the missionaries meet with them. They were pretty confused. We found out on Thursday, so we did an emergency exchange and Elder Allen took Elder Ostvig all around our area to show him where all our investigators are; that way none of them get lost or forgotten in the move. And then telling all our recent converts was even harder. They all knew Elder Allen was going to move since he'd been there for so long. But when they learned that I was too, they were confused. At least they all know Elder Ostvig. And a lot of them know Elder Ostvig's new companion too. Elder Bennett. He was in our zone already.

Last Tuesday we had a zone scramble. That's when everyone in the zone goes to different places. I went with Elder Fiala to his area of Yuanlin. It was a lot of fun. His city is a bit bigger than mine, so it was pretty different seeing so many people in the streets. I'm more used to the open country with a semi large city. So different.

Wednesday night at English class was so great. It was the party night and we made it Olympic themed. We just had a spelling bee and a spelling game involving ping pong and stuff like that. But we had a lot of people show up. Us and the Zone leaders had a lot of investigators there as well and we all had to split up to sit with all of them afterwards. So there were 4 rooms of investigators all at once. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday during our emergency exchange, I went with Elder Muhlestein to Caotun. It was a lot of fun as well. I learned a lot. They've been working with a guy for a long time and he's had a really rough life. I was so happy to find that he's doing all he can to get baptized. He straight up quit smoking and drinking. He says he's always tempted to try it again, but he's trying to have faith in his prayers to overcome it. That's gotta be quite a struggle! I can't even imagine. Such amazing miracles through faith.

Saturday was pretty chill. We had a lot of back to back lessons at the church. So we were there pretty much all day. We got to sit with Song and Wu and tell them that we were both moving. They were pretty sad, but we told them that we could go with them to the temple next year and they were really excited for that. Right after all our lessons, we had a long choir practice for the stake talent show that night. All that last minute music cramming sent me back to high school. It's harder in Chinese though. The talent show was in Yuanlin, that's where our stake center is. It was so much fun. Our ward really went all out and we got a big applause after our big number. Us 4 Elders had a bit of a solo at the end of it. It was sweet!

Afterwards was MOVE CALL MADNESS!!! It really is crazy how much people care about where everyone is going. Some missionaries go all out and make brackets and have theories and ways of figuring out who is going to become trainer and who is going to become a leader of some kind. It's more crazy than March Madness. I found out that I was going to Tainan! So cool! It's the same city that Elder Allen started at, but I'm in a different area than he was. Elder Allen is going Zone leader in Taizhong. Pretty sweet! Church was really amazing. Us two and Elder Muhlestein spoke in church since we were all leaving. It was really spiritual. And a guy who served a mission here and his family came back to visit and came to our ward for church. We were all a little shocked to see a whole family of Americans. But they're from Alpine, Utah. He's really cool. I thought it was really sweet to find out which people in the ward were taught and baptized by him.

We had our final dinner at Chuson's house that night. Us 4 Elders were there. He really knows how to make a feast. His mom was also baptized on Saturday! We got to talk to her on Skype for a little bit. She's so sweet. When we hung up, she immediately called us back and said we need to say a prayer together. She's pretty set to endure to the end. I'm so excited for her and her family.

We got to visit the Hong family at the end of the night. They couldn't make it to church because they were in Tainan visiting family. But they were also shocked that we were both leaving. And they also expressed excitement to see us next year at the temple. And who knows, I could probably see them down here someday! A little unlikely though. I could also someday move back up to that area again. You never know.

I'm now down in Tainan. And it is a whole lot hotter! I got to take a really sweet train down here. I was on it with Elder Croft, and he described it as being on the starship enterprise. Pretty close. My new companion is Elder Hoopes! He's really cool. And I've only known him for about an hour now. He came on the same time as Elder Allen though. And this will be his 5th move call here in Tainan. So he's pretty knowledgeable in the area. This place is really huge! This is a big city. I'm so excited to get things started!

Well that's my week! Time to start anew and get going! I love you all! Please continue to write. Remember, the Lord loves you!

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Pictures from week 11 and 12

Pictures from it's always easier to seave in a disaster

Hong Family

Tradistional clothing.. he thinks. Found at Sun Moon Lake

Coll Aborigines playing tribal music

Chuson

On the boat on Sun Moon Lake

 Sun Moon Lake

 Par of Nautou from 15 stories up



Pictures from the letter called Zone Conference



At an all you can eat steak place

The metal they gave us

Out finished masterpiece

The 5 man apartment

Taiwan Week 12: It's Always Easy To Serve In A Disaster

Dear family and friends,

Well... They announced a typhoon, and it came. Hard. It came right after English class on Wednesday, which was nice because we had a good turn out with 6 more new people! It stormed during the night and everything was shaking. I can't even begin to imagine how fast the wind was going. We had some leakage areas the next morning in our apartment, but not too bad. I think the morning was when it was at it's peak of the storm. I tried to get a picture of the street flooding outside our apartment, but it didn't turn out too well. By the time we got out, the wind was back down to just crazy storm status, but it was raining really hard. Storms are the best time to visit people because everyone is inside. Actually, everyone got calls the night before and said the city was going to be shut down. So no one had work! We got to visit some investigators, and they just had to let us in from the storm. Then we went to visit Tony, a recent convert. His house was flooding really bad. The water was just pouring in. So we helped him as much as we could build a blockade. The streets were all completely flooded over and about 6 inches deep and just flowing all over the place. They completely shut down all the bridges into Nantou because they were flooded over. So we had no way into our main area with most of our investigators and members. But we still have a lot in Zhongxing. Our next stop was a student investigator. And his road became a rushing river. At this point, we were used to walking around in mid calve deep water. Taiwan mission rule of thumb: unless the water is up to your waist, you can still go out an work. And I really enjoyed going out in the storm We helped them and all their neighbors build blockades around their house. It was pretty intense. We did a lot of tracting since we were out in an area with houses we haven't been to yet. Only after an hour since leaving our student investigators street, we drove past it and it was blocked off by the police and it was completely under probably 2 feet of water. Totally rough... That's how the whole town was by the end of the day.

In other news, I completely passed off phase 1 of my language learning! I'm so glad. It felt like a huge accomplishment. Now I'm on phase 2, which is just a ton of flashcards. I'm really enjoying it. I find that I learn really well with flashcards.

A family in our ward likes to have all the missionaries in the ward over at the end of each move call for dinner. And they also invite over other families in the ward too. It was a lot of fun. It was kind of in behalf of Elder Muhlestein since he's going home, and Elder Allen since we're pretty sure he's leaving. Move day is next week. He's been here for 5 move calls. One of the Sisters might move too. And there's also a rumor going around that they're closing down the Caotun area. When an area closes down, both those missionaries move out and the nearest missionaries take over that area. Caotun in the Zone leaders' area, but since they need to stay there because they're the zone leaders, I would be the one leaving too. Which would be really sad. We've found some really amazing people these past 2 weeks. I want to work with them more. Plus, there was a mini move call today since an Elder needs to get home for the Air force. So Elder Taylor in Puli moved down to Gaoxiong to be a zone leader. So cool! And... Elder Nickell is coming up here! Yeah, Elder Nickell in our home stake that I grew up with. So excited. He's now in my zone! So that's another reason why I'm hoping not to move.

We have this really sweet new investigator. His surname is Li. We found him one peaceful night on our biggest bridge just staring off. He's such a humble guy. We sat with him on Friday night and finally got to talk about the Book of Mormon (there's always interruptions and not enough time.) And we invited him to read it. He said "but I'm not always here. I won't be able to have you two over enough read it." And that's when we said we were giving it to him. And he just went into complete shock. He said "you're giving me this book?" Well yeah! And he just jumped in and started flipping through pages. He was so excited. And he's been keeping his other commitments as well. Such a solid guy. And his daughter came to English and really likes it. She also sits in on the lessons when she can. It's so amazing getting to work with this family.

Also, the day before the typhoon, we were heading up to meet a family way up on the mountain, and we sat down to eat out dinner a couple streets away. The people whose house we were eating in front of came home. The teenage boy walked up to us and said he knew us. It was a kid we came up to at the park 3 days after I got here to Taiwan. It was so crazy. They were warning us to hurry off the mountain before it comes. They were the funniest to watch as we said we're excited to be in a typhoon. But they said we could come back and meet with them again. And we did just that. The whole family is so sweet. We're excited to meet with them more.

Well that's my week at a glance! I am safe. We're all safe over here. We looked at the typhoon as a party and all the natives thought we were crazy. I'm so excited for these coming weeks. We found some really cool people to teach this past week. I'm going to be getting a new companion next week as well. That'll be such a change. Elder Allen is so awesome!

I love you all! Keep the faith! One thing I really loved to read this past week was when the Lord walked on water and told Peter to come out as well. He was going until he got scared and started sinking. He cried "Lord, save me." And the Lord reached out and grabbed him. We're going to be facing trials in our lives. We'll start sinking into the water. But when we realize that we can't do it alone and cry to the Lord for help, he'll be there to grab us and help us.

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 11: Baptism and When It Rains It Pours

Dear family and friends,

What a week it has been! It's been so full of amazing experiences. We started the week going on exchanges with the zone leaders. That was a lot of fun. I was with Elder Ostvig. And it was a little nerve racking since he came to my area and I was pretty much the senior for the day. So I was leading him and Elder Yang (duan chuan) around to all the lessons, and then taking the lead in the lessons. But it was really fun. We didn't get a whole lot done though because it started raining really hard and lightning was striking everywhere. We were at McDonald's when it started and we were confined to it for a while. So we got our calling done in the mean time. I think lightning struck the building too, because thunder followed directly afterwards and the whole building started shaking. It was pretty cool.

Wednesday was absolutely crazy. While trying to find and visit some less active members, it started storming like crazy; crazier than I've ever seen. We were in Nantou kind of high on the mountain, and we knew we had to go higher. Lightning is striking everywhere and the roads were flooding. All the streets were just waterfalls. We could barely see where we were going because the rain was so heavy and the wind was so powerful. But we kept going. We were giving it our all trying to go up this steep road. But then the wind picked up a lot more and knocked us off our bikes. At that point we decided we needed to get out of there. Whenever they warn us of a typhoon, nothing happens. But when it's a perfectly fine day, chaos. It was so crazy. That night was English class, and we didn't think anyone would come because of the storm. But we actually had 7 newcomers. That's pretty much a record for one week. What was even better was that most of them have interest in the church and came to church yesterday. So cool! They all want to learn more. They stayed all 3 hours. I'm really excited for them.

The biggest news this week is that the Hong family got baptized! It was so great. I'm so happy for them. All last week, they were just doing all they could to get familiar with the ward and have their questions answered concerning the process of being baptized. It's always fun practicing! They didn't seem to have any fears. And then when it all came down to the baptism, they loved it. And their testimonies were so amazing. It was such a great experience. They're loving coming to church and learning more about family history work. Pictures will be coming next week. We don't have much time today.

This morning we had a good chunk of our recent converts come over early in the morning to play basketball with us at the church. Chuson, Song Zhi Hao, and the Hong dad. It was really cool. They all have this old school style about them. And they're way skilled. It was so much fun. Then Chuson took us to Sun Moon Lake today. It was way fun. This island is so beautiful. We got to do so much stuff. But time ran short. Hence the shorter email.
I love you all so much! Thanks for the letters and all the support. Remember, the Lord loves each and every one of us. Keep reaching out to others as much as you can. Go out of your way to say hey. You never know when you'll make some one's day. Until next Monday!

 Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter

Taiwan Week 10: Zone Conference

Dear family and friends,

This week has been so much fun. Pretty much every night since we built the bunk bed, we've been having to make adjustments to make the bed more stable. The stuff the mission office originally gave us wasn't nearly enough. While we were there for zone conference, they gave us 8 more metal pieces to help stabalize it. And Chuson, amazing recent convert, gave us some boards to use as well. There's just always more to add onto!

Zone Conference was really so amazing! It was so much fun to see everyone in the north part of our mission. I got to meet a ton of new people. It was a lot of fun. We had lessons on repentence, forgiveness, the purpose of our mission standards, emergency preparedness, and stress management. It was so great. We also had reflections from all the missionaries going home next move call. It really was so touching and exciting. Elder Muhlestein's reflection hit me the most. I'm so glad I've been able to room with him for his last 2 move calls.

Yang Zhang lao is still with us. He's really cool. He adapted to missionary life really fast. Except for the sleep schedule. He's always falling asleep if he's sitting for too long. It's so funny. Time really has flown fast with him. It's sad that he's headed home on Thursday. Two weeks isn't long enough. Even though he's 15.

This week we also were able to serve Chuson. Last week during our exchange, Elder Allen and Elder Croft painted one of his outside walls. So this week we finished the other wall. It was so fun. We were just out on his roof in the hot sun painting this 3 story house. I've never sweat so much in my life. We also brought a simplified Book of Mormon over for his grandma. Or at least who we call his grandma. It's kind of a further distance relative. But she decided she wanted to read the Book of Mormon one day and started reading Chuson's. But his is traditional and she's from mainland China and understands simplified more. So we were more than happy to get a simplified one for her! What a miracle that was.

We've come in contact with some really cool less active members as well. One we've been meeting with for a while call US up and said he wanted us to come over to visit. And after we were done sharing with him, he took us to his mom's house to share a bit with her. And lucky Elder Yang was with us because she pretty much only spoke Taiwanese. He's been teaching us a little bit too. We found another less active group of siblings by the help of neighbors. They had moved a few years back and the old neighbors took us to their new house. We caught them at the perfect time. They were all visiting their mom. Even one of them who lives in Taipei was here to visit. They haven't really had contact with missionaries in almost 10 years. They were so happy to meet with us again. And they said even though they don't live with their mom anymore their mom isn't a member, we're free to come over any time and talk with her and she'll give us food. Pretty random, but really hospitable.

Alright. Now for the big news. We were meeting with the Hong family. The investigating family that passed their baptismal interview a few weeks back but haven't set a baptismal date. We had Song Zhi Hao come peike. He's the recent convert who's wife was just baptized. He shared his baptismal experience. And then Elder Yang shared his because he was baptized 3 years ago. And then there was silence for a few minutes. Then the Hong dad, in his decision making voice, said "Alright. When is the next baptism?" We said the 28th. And him and his wife were all for it! So at church yesterday, the bishop announced it and the Hong family was so excited once it was announced. So they're getting baptized this Saturday! They feel comfortable and welcome in the ward. They know it's all true. They love learning more. Especially about family history and sealing your family together. I'm so excited for them.

Well that's my week in a letter! It's been quite an eventful week. I'm excited to get this week started! I love you all! Please continue to write. Do all you can to reach out to those who are in need of help. Be an example of the believers!

 

Love, Elder Anthony Buckwalter