Week #73 Had a Meeting with a Chinese Tea Party

1. How are your investigators doing this week? Are any of them progressing? Yes,we nailed an invite.

2. How was Zone Conference? It was pretty cool. 

3. What exciting thing happened to you this past week? My comp was sick.  

4. Who are you sharing your apartment with?
Another companionship.

Ni hao everyone! Well this week has been actually super duper boring. My comp picked up a cold and we were in for 4 days and the other 2 days we had meetings so we really only had a a day and a half of teaching... so ya our numbers are super haihao.  I will be expecting the call from the President that I am getting fired soon.  The cool thing that happened was we went to go teach an lLA and well he said his friends wanted to meet us so we were pretty excited.  When we showed up there were like 10 Taiwanese old dudes and we sat down and they were all really nice and then they started playing this video... then we had a bad feeling.  It turns out they are part of a group of Taiwanese that wants the USA to liberate them. Kinda like a more radical tea party.  I said we had to go and could not really affiliate with them and that I have to love everyone, so we left.  

Apparently a lot of them came from all over the area to meet with us. I have no idea what they thought i could do.  I went to a Jr college. I felt bad but honestly our roles as missionaries are to help people change their lives. We had a guy commit to baptism which is pretty awesome. He has been investigating for a while and it’s supposed to happen next week. I had to go on splits with the ward leaders and during the 2 lessons i didn't understand anything... it was entirely in Taiyou not Mandarin.... crazy.... Anyways i am heartbroken over England losing... but how about the USA!!! See ya later Spain . World Cup is in full swing over here. Love you all. Cassie have fun in Bolivia and Jacob live it up college man!!

Week # 72: A Great Tracting Miracle

1) How are your investigators? 

Well we have 3 goals right now. I  think they are super hai hao.... so idk... i am aiming for more quality than quantity. 

2) how is your companion? What great experiences have you had together? 

We can relate together.  We are both half Asians and like to play music. 

3) Is it hot there? How do you keep cool? Do you have air conditioning in your room? In your entire apartment? 

Air conditioning is the greatest thing ever.


4) Do you still bike every where or do you ever ride public transportation? 

We ride our bikes everywhere.

5) How are you now liking the food now compared to when you first came to Taiwan? Do you eat it all the time? Do you eat on the street a lot? Do members feed you? What's your favorite food? Least favorite food? Do you like things with red beans in them? 

I like it a lot but I miss other types of food. I eat rice everyday. Yes we always eat on the street. We rarely get fed my the members. I like the breakfast food here. It's pretty good. I hate stinky tofu. I hate the red bean stuff.
 
6. Chinese.  Do you speak it fluently now? How much of it do you understand? Are you able to say whatever you want to say? it takes 10 years to become fluent in Chinese. No mom I am not fluent. I just started learning characters.  Yes, I can talk and understand.

7. What are you doing for Pday? We are going to go out and eat.

Ni hao everyone.  Well another day in the beautiful Republic of China. Well this week has been rough. Its rained the entire week and we have tr acted most of it but not with out the miracles!!! We tracted for 2 hours and not one single person let us in or listened to us. However as we were leaving we saw this one kid walking home and we said hey and started talking to him. It turns out I had played ball with him and so he invited us in to talk and then we got him to commit to a date for baptism. Now that would not of happened if we hadn't tracted that area or prayed... bam... 

We biked out an hour to go find an less active and we saw the ocean!! And so they have these man made concrete things that are about 10 feet tall and they are go down to the bottom so its about 30 feet from the bottom of the ocean to top so we just climbed all over them and it kinda got sketchy but overall it was a heart warming experiences for all. 

I almost got another root canal this week.. which is not too fun.  I might get one next week. i swear i have met with the dentist more times in the last month than in my entire life. Oh ya yesterday we had a boss day set up for Sunday full of lessons... like 8 lessons total and well it rained and everyone canceled on us.  But I got to bring this less active to watch an old church movie with us its called "ON THE WAY HOME." According to Elder Kim that movie dunks people. Its super cool. I liked it a lot. Well happy birthday to Cassie!!! ah man you are so old 16 so crazy!!! I am so happy for you !!! Currently I am in an  awful depression because I am on a mission during the world cup... but go England and the US... love you all. 

Elder Buhler

Week #71: Tracting, Tracting and More Tracting!

Hey fam bam so the email will be short but to start off HAPPY BDAY CASSIE AND JARED!!!! Ah man, I  am still writing you guys letters and grabbing you some stuff.   I am sorry to Kate Hullinger,  who is now the nanny of the Buhler family! You are in my prayers!  Congrats to Jalon... he is coming back out to the field!!!!! And to Jacob for traveling with BYU !!!  This week we did a lot of tracting... a lot of tracting... so much tracting that it was insane.... not a lot of success but I don't care,  I love it. Well I love you all. My Chinese is improving and if anything pray for Sam and Tang and Hong.... I love you all. Elder Buhler

Week #70: The Mission is My Life

Dear fam bam

First off, congrats to our new college boy.  Second off,  happy birthday Jared.  Third, may you all have a Happy Dragon Boat Festival and if you don't know what that is, well join the club.

 

This week has been crazy.  So I got my new comp , Elder Galura who I might say just might be the biggest stud ever. Just a super humble guy whose dad was in the navy and he lived all over the world.  He actually went to MMHS. Did I mention this kid is a musical prodigy? He hears something and can play it and he plays 4 instruments. We are gonna run away from home and start a band. Well we are gonna buy a house and then run away.  Well he is awesome and amazing at music and just a stud overall. Well this week has been cool.  We have picked up 4 new investigators which is like a miracle. The biggest one is S. We got him from English and man oh man he is taking everything super well. We taught him the 1st lesson, 2nd lesson, law of chastity and word of wisdom and even got to polygamy.... all in 1 lesson and he was totally chill with it. Then we talked about the Book of Mormon for 1 hour and man he was still chill with it. He is the most golden man in the world.

 

Elder Galura and I have tract ed for what it seems like ages now ahhaha we tract so much but I am finally feeling we are seeing a bunch  of good stuff happen from it. We have tract ed into like 5 homes, one which is the richest house i have ever seen in Taiwan. It reminds me of Mike Cutler cause well the guy is a construction worker.

 

 I feel impressed to share this. So a lot of us missionaries... OK it might be only me, feel like we put our lives on hold and can't get wait to get back to that life back home but my cousin Calvin told me that this is my life.  The mission is my life. My life is not on hold. It is currently going. For those of you who know me, I am a huge dreamer and I love talking about the past but my cousin challenged me to live in the now. I only have about 7 months left.  I need to make everyday count. Its kinda like editing film on final cut pro in Mr. Boss's class. I felt my life was one long strip and for the mission and I had to cut a piece out and put it on a different line. But I realized that its all one strip. This is my life and I need to enjoy it. I always am thinking about how am I gonna get into the college i want to, or I miss football, or I want to go to Paystrup's wedding or go camping with him or do hood rat things with Cassie but I have to realize  what I have now. Now is a special time in my life where I actually feel like I matter. Its kinda like high school when we are in it we just want to go to college but after high school most of us miss it. I don't want it to be like that after the mission.  I want to leave it all in the mission.

 

I am really inspired by Elder Krieger's letters.  That kid talks with faith and boldness that honestly I wish I had. He talks about through God he can do all things.  I challenge everyone to live in the now, enjoy and  smell of the roses and to be like Elder Krieger and walk with God, hand in hand . Even if you don't know if He is there ... try it.

 

Love you all. Elder Buhler

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

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

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