Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Week #69: Elder Buhler's Adopted Grandpa

Ni hao everyone!!! Well its that time of the month again!!! MOVE CALL the most overrated hyped up thing in the entire mission. The one night where you stress out where you are going and the zone leaders act like they are the flipping coolest people ever. Oh, the move call. Well this week we had a rude awakening of the APs calling us at 8 and telling both other elders that they have to be out by ____so that was crazy. It was fun having that kind of a 4 man apartment. Elder Brinley and Liu are both awesome missionaries and so much fun to be around they are really bros. Well Elder Roberts packed up and left this morning. It was really sad cause we had gotten really close and well it was time for the little fella to move on and get out of here. The week was kinda crazy. Actually it was a pretty down week.  Not too many lessons but its funny the change you see in people over a 6 week period. One of our investigators who at the beginning of the move call had zero belief in the word hope has now come to church and believes that the Book of Mormon and us can really truly help him. I like to focus on the LA's out here because I feel that they all left the church for some reason or another but its always cool to get them back because they really are what makes up the ward. I think my favorite member is  a very old man named Shen Bei Bei. He had a stroke and lives by him self and even though he is not LA in the slightest.  I try to go visit him every other day well because he is lonely but also because I love the old guy to death. We sit with each other at church every week and he always saves my seat and basically we communicate with smiling laughing or my awful Chinese. He is just a sweet ol man and if I ever meet his son I'm gonna smack him so hard for not visiting his dad. Sometimes he has us watch these super old Chinese movies and man are they funny. Another cool thing happened an investigator challenged me to read a book about Tibetan Buddhism and he would read the Book of Mormon and well I read it and it was really awesome getting a chance to look into what most of Taiwan is supposed to believe. We got to see our first Taoism parade which is super super weird. They have all this traditional weird stuff and then they have these cars with poles on them... I personally don't see how they are at all related but hey when in Taiwan, am I right? Congrats to the year of 2014. I hope whether you go to college or go on a mission or join the military that everything works out for all of you. Congrats to my lil bro Jacob!!

Love you all,

Elder Buhler

Monday, May 19, 2014

Week #67: (Mother's Day Skype: No Email); Week #68: A Mission is Super Awesome in the Weirdest Ways

What's up everyone!!! Well these week has been interesting!!! Skyping the fam bam was a good.!! I miss you all so much and can't wait to see you all !!! 

Well, this week was interesting. We got fanged (mom note: I have no idea what this means) 16 times this week which is hilarious if you think about it!!! We a got invited to sing at a club that our RC sings at.  I played the good 'ol a team song then wagon wheel then falling slowly they liked a team so much they invited me to go again.... they were oh so wrong to let me... Stacie Jax in the making.

No, but this week we accidentally tracted into a less active part member family and man oh man was it cool. The wife is baptized and totally wants us to baptize the father and it has really been a huge faith builder even when the days are going by horribly that miracles like this can happen. 

I really feel like the mission has been super awesome in the weirdest ways. You get to meet all these people who you would of never been friends with before the mission and become super buddy buddy. Elder Brinley (an elder in the apartment)  and I talked till 4 in the morning about vexations of the soul. Religion, what I
we want in life, what we want to become and etc. 

I was asked a question: what do I want be become? What kind of missionary do I want to become like? At first, I said I want to become like Porter Rockwell and I thought again na I want to be a missionary that God would be proud of in a sense. 

Well last night I could not sleep so I stayed up late reading Liahonas and man some of the stories are really good and some are so cheesy but I feel that they are all really helpful in there own little way. I don't know if any of you have watched the new "I'm a Mormon" about the lady who is the drummer for neon trees but it really hit home with me. It's just a super good message that I feel can hit a home run with a lot of people!!! 

It's super duper hot here. One more thing is this investigator who when I came to the area told us there is no hope and hope is fake made a complete change. We told him we loved him and he started to cry and then this week he just showed up at church. It was crazy !! It was cool. Congrats to Springville for track! Proud of all my boys that are graduating . Props to Jacob for all the coolish he is doing. Also EVERY ONE CONGRATULATE SYD BROWN AND PACY TO TASTY they are getting married and are naming there 1st child after me. 

Well love you all.

Elder Buhler

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Week #66: "Play Like Its Your Last Down Ever."




Dear Everyone:

This week has been a roller coaster!!! i have had to change my missionary mode because some people in the ward have complained and if there is one thing I do not allow on my ship is a mutiny!!! ha jokes but its all worked out now. We have invited one of our investigators to get baptized. He however feels that religion is a family thing so he will talk it over with his family. Honestly he is awesome. We have been teaching him English and finally we get to talk about some spiritual stuff thanks to our good friend Jack. He is a great guy! He is the guy whose thesis I am correcting. 

Ya know i can say this. I have wasted a lot of my time on my  mission especially last year just being stupid and right now i don't have time to do stupid stuff.  Well ok I do but I have to work harder than ever before.  I was reading some old letters yesterday and 3 that came to mind were Troy's , Marcus Case's and Brother Chivers. 

 All were different in context.  Troy's was playful yet his message was blunt "quit being a baby." Marcus's was just how much he loved me and he knew I could do hard things and finally Flynn's where he challenged me to dare to do mighty things.  All these letters are currently in my journal because they remind me I need to one, quit being a baby and, two that even if i don't believe in my self a lot of people believe in me and three,  I need to dare to do great things. I am truly blessed to have these people in my life. They help me on my mission. It's crazy to think last year people were saying you better stay on your mission and now its dude you are coming home.

I love my mission. I will be real. It was the hardest and still is the hardest thing I have ever done but i will quote Marcus "the mission is the greatest thing i have ever done". I hope my lil brothers and whoever reads my emails will excuse my weaknesses and make no mistake the mission will break but it will also build you up. And I hope by the end of my mission I can be proud of what i have done. I have about 7 months left and I intend to make them count. I will quote Brandon Curtis "play like its your last down ever". 

We all who have played with Curtis remember who played hard every down and we would like wise should do the same. Sorry there is not a lot of funny stuff in this letter. I just felt impressed i should share all of this with you . I have struggled on my mish and shoot I will still struggle but man I love the people i have met.

Love you all.

Elder Buhler