I got a new companion my last week on my misson

Okay no that's a joke. Still have my sweet Sister Stubbs but funny story. I'm gonna tell y'all the long version because I can. So a few weeks ago Bishop Harrison found out I was leaving like going home leaving so he asked me to speak. He said 5-7 minutes. I was like cool I can do that. The next week he asked if I could speak for a little longer, 8-10 minutes. No problem! Then Saturday night he left us a voicemail asking if I could speak for 10-12 mintues! Basically in a week the time doubled of what he wanted from me. But it's okay because I love the Dover Ward and I will do anything for them. So I am speaking with Eddie who just got home from his mission like two weeks ago. It's just the two of us and I look at the time and there is like over 40 minutes for the rest of the meeting. I'm freaking out a little inside and I think so was Bishop because before he announced that I would be speaking he asked if Sister Butler would come up and share her testimony. I was a little confused because I had no idea who Sister Butler was. I had never met a Sister Butler in this ward and I was looking at the congregation and I knew everyone that was there and there was no Sister Butler. Then Bishop said her companion was going home and I was like, "Wait, I'm going home. I have a companion but her name is Sister Stubbs. Is he talking about Sister Stubbs?" Anyway, he was and everyone was confused but thought it was funny and teased her about it. Everyone will probably remember her as Sister Butler in this ward now!

Well this is it. It's my last week and my last weekly email (thank goodness). Thank you so much all of y'all that kept up with my adventures and experiences. I hope you learned something these past 18 months. I know I did. 

Here's a little update on our week:

We taught Joseph at the church. (We didn't want anymore bedbug incedents.) We taught the Plan of Salvation and he really liked it! We invited him to be baptized and to pray about it. He said the closing prayer and asked if he should be baptized in -- and then he stopped and asked what the name of our church is again. That's something we hope he learns soon. But he was able to come to church again so that was awesome! (He may or may not have taken a smoke break between classes)

Friday I went to the temple with all the other dying missionaries and had my last interview with President Randall. I'm going to miss him way to much. But he told me his daughter wants to hang out with me when I move to Provo so I'm pumped. 

Had dinner with Sister Francesconi and Sister Burnham and found out Sister F. is moving to Utah and she said we can go have lunch together when I move up there so Utah might not be so bad. 

Went to the Elder's baptism and was asked to lead the music.

Sunday I spoke in church and gave probably the best talk I have ever given in my life. (Just patting myself on the back here)

Taught AJ and Amber and Junior one last time (Aryanna was with her grandma) It was an awesome lesson and it was the first time we had taught Amber and she loved it! Also Junior told me I was his favorite sister missionary so boo-yah

I am so grateful to have been able to spend these 18 months here in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to wear my Savior's name next to mine. I know Christ lives and that the Book of Mormon is true and that ever single page testifies of Him. I invite all of you to set a goal to read the Book of Mormon everyday for the rest of your life because it will change your life. I can promise that because it changed mine. I love you all and hopefully I will see you all in a few days!

-- 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

Rachel is our favorite

Amber, Junior and AJ

My cute comp ♡

Don't let the bed bugs bite!

So I don't have too much to write about because you all just heard from me on Wednesday but here's a fun story:

We received a referral for a man named Joseph and we go with a couple named the Ellsworths to teach him. He lives in a trailer with other people so we had to meet in his room. Not the first time I've done something like that so it wasn't a big deal. Well we had to sit on his bed and as we were looking around it was just dirty. Like filthy and the thought that kept running through my head was, "I have not had bed bugs on my mission. I don't have that much longer. I CAN'T get bed bugs on my mission!" Then I look right in front of my face and there is this nice big can of "Bed Bug spray" Well we teach the lesson like normal and he is actually really cool and wants to know more about God so he can improve his life. He also came to church on Sunday! But as soon as we got in the car we called the mission office to know what we could do to prevent bed bugs from entering our house. We drove straight home and took off all our clothes and threw them in the dryer because that's what kills bed bugs. So all of you out there just know: heat kills bed bugs. That's like the only thing. We don't have bed bugs. Don't worry mom, I won't be bringing them home.

We taught Ercel again this week and he told us a funny story. So a member couple invited him over for dinner and he brought a bottle of sparkling champagne. He was really embaressed but I thought it was so funny! He has been reading the Book of Mormon more and praying a little more and he finally prayed at the end of the lesson! 

Nothing much to write about this week. I just emailed you all on Wednesday and I will see all of you (hopefully) next week. I love you all!

-- 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

We went to the beach today and I love Hawaiian skirts

Drinkin my Bud to get a little Wiser

Exciting stuff around here in Dover Delaware. I feel like I can never just say Dover. I have to say Dover Delaware. Anyway! Here's the low down.

Tuesday we took one of our favorite Young Women out with us, Rachel. She is so awesome and we love her so much. So we didn't have much planned that day. Just a bunch of people to stop by and then later a lesson with Phanord. We really wanted to see a miracle with Rachel so we prayed extra hard. We start out and for about 2 hours we have no luck. No one is home or no one is answering the door. We finally decide to go to a neighborhood that has more people around during the day. Finally people are home! But no one wants to talk to us. Some people are polite though. They tell us they are too drunk to talk about God and we appreciate that a lot. Finally it's time for our lesson. Now Phanord has not been keeping a lot of his commitments so we were going to drop him in this lesson. Before we go in Rachel tells us she's probably not going to say anything. We tell her that's fine. If she feels something, she can say it. We are reading the Book of Mormon with Phanord and he told us he wasn't sure he was going to be able to come to church this Sunday already. As we are reading he stops and says he hasn't been reading because he doesn't understand. All of a sudden Rachel jumps in! She said that that's why we come to church. There are people at church that can help us understand the scriptures and what they mean! She just bore such a beautiful testimony of church and how it has helped her and it made a huge impact on Phanord. He was like, "yeah! I'll come!" And on Sunday, there he was! It was awesome! After the lesson Rachel was like, I don't even know how that happened! Words just started coming out of me! 

We taught our good friend Barbara. She has this crazy dog named Chaz and basically Sister Stubbs and I almost died. Now some of you know how much I love dogs. Those of you that don't know, I love dogs. Well, I hate Chaz. He is literally the devil. Chaz... Taz... Tasmanian devil... devil. Chaz=the devil. 

Friday we had Zone Conference. My last zone conference.... it was weird. But since all my favorite people were there like Sister Stubbs, Sister Summers, Sister Shields, President Randall, Sister Randall, Alli Randall, Elder Brown, Elder West, Elder Nelson it made it so much better. Then after we went on exchanges and I got to go on exchanges with my favorite person ever, Sister Summers! It was a win win kind of day. 

AJ not only brought his kids to church with him on Sunday but their mom! Apparently AJ and Amber (the kid's mom) are going to try and work things out so they can be a family again!  

I held a chicken yesterday. It was scary. Okay wait not scary but interesting. I now know I'm not a farm girl. I am definitely a city slicker. (I love you Philadelphia) So the chicken freaked out a little and then I freaked out a lot and dropped the chicken and it bounced of a 3 year old boy's head and landed in the box. If thats not talent, I don't know what is. 

We went to the temple today and wow it was great. There is just so much peace that comes from the temple. It's amazing being inside the Philadelphia temple because you know on the outside of those walls the world is moving fast. But inside is calm and peaceful and close to God. Please do anything you can to go to the temple regularly. Heavenly Father wants you to visit His house often. It's a gift really to be able to talk with Him in His special house. I love and miss all of y'all! 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

 Sista Shields ♡

Fav companion ♡

Da temple

 Philly

More Philly ♡

Best street in Philly

Fly eagles fly

We took advantage of the zone leader's dented car.

We are fine though

BFFs 

Gang Gang

We are serious about missionary work

 Before scrapple

After scrapple

I thought holy water would taste different

Another miracle filled week like always! The miracles started on Tuesday and ended yesterday with 9 new investigators and 2 people with a baptism date!

So Tuesday was so amazing. We taught this girl Denise who had been found by missionaries like a year ago. As we taught the Restoration the spirit was so strong. She said she has been looking for a message all her life that would touch her and help her and so far she is liking this one. Later that afternoon we watched the restoration movie with Sherman and she loves Moroni so much so when it showed him, she gave an audible gasp and was just so excited. She loved it so much she talked her daughter into watching it as well so we are going over tonight to share it with them! The day ended with the Sparks family. Another family that had been found by missionaries over a year ago but nothing ever worked out. First we were just teaching the parents and as we started testifying of prophets the mom stopped us. When someone stops you, you get nervous. Oh no they are going to kick us out of their house. But instead she says, "Can I go get my oldest two daughters?" Oh heck yes! They loved what we taught and were so excited to start reading the Book of Mormon! The mom asked the daughters, "Can we commit to reading this book?" They are on fire!

Wednesday we had a lesson with Jasmine set up. We met Jasmine the week before outside and her daughter who is about 2. We walk up and her daughter opens the door and lets us in. Sitting on the couch is an older woman. She asks who we are and we tell her we are missionaries looking for Jasmine. She introduces herself as, "Samantha, a white girl name. Oh no offense." Then she tells us Jasmine isn't here but the daughter pipes up and says, "Yes she is. She's in the kitchen." Well Jasmine comes out and we teach her and her mom, Samantha and they seem super interested (After Samantha started being nice to us.)

Friday we met with Ercel and he told us baptism is something he feels better about every time we come over. He also told us he has been praying more! He prays while he brushes his teeth! 

Sunday we met with AJ's kids, Aryanna and Junior. They are 10 and 11. Junior has some pretty interesting ideas. They both have been coming to church with AJ for a long time and so Junior tells us (talking about the sacrament), "I thought holy water would taste different but it just tastes like normal water." They are both super funny but they both want to get baptized May 12th! We are so excited for them!

The gospel is so true! I love it so much and I hope all of you find joy in it as well! If you aren't having fun in the gospel, you are doing something wrong! Have a great week and don't forget Sister Van Buskirk loves each and every one of you!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

I don't even know

 We are the cutest ♡

I hate these so much

I love being a missionary. I really truly do. But something I hate so much is writing these emails. I know you all love them but I don't think any of you understand the type of procrastination that goes into one email. It is now 5:47pm. I have until 6pm to get this done so here it goes.

We honestly had a fantastic week. We found a couple new investigators. One is Barbara and she's crazy. She told us some things she believes and we were like okay nope that's false. It's so false the bible says it's false and you read the bible. We told her we have a living prophet and she said, "I don't know about that" But she said we can come back and read the Book of Mormon with her so we will be back Barbara! 

The other investigator is Cheri! We have been trying to teach her for a long time and finally we caught her! We started teaching the Restoration and she looked bored out of her mind until we started talking about Joseph Smith. She then was actually listening! It was like the spirit whispered, "hey listen to this" It was really cool to not only see her body language change but to feel the spirit change when we started to testify of Joseph Smith. 

Other cool lessons we had were with Shakyra and Ercel. Shakyra is a young mom that we taught the Plan of Salvation to this week. We told her we lived as spirits before we came to earth. We told we probably knew her up there and she probably knew her daughters as well! Her face just lit up! At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized and she said "Yes!" We are so excited for her! Ercel was a very cool experience because of the spiritual guidance we had leading up to it. We decided to teach a less active earlier in the week about prayer. In preach my gospel there is a section about prayer and gives scripture references. Next to those references I had written my own, Alma 53:10-11, 40. I felt those would be good scriptures to share with this less active. Well the lesson never happened but those scriptures were in the back of my head. When we prepared for Ercel' s lesson we decided to teach about prayer and to again use those scriptures. That story is about the stripping warriors and how they prayed before battle and no one died. As we shared that with Ercel we could tell he felt something. He then opened up and shared a similar experience. He said when he was deployed, before they went on missions they would pray before they left. No matter what time it was. And no one ever died from their group. What a testimony that God prepares scriptures to touch people from the beginning.

Well times up! I'll send pics next week! Love you all!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Sooooo maybe the water was a little cold but it's okay right?

AJ GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! So the baptism was set for 1pm on Saturday. Thursday we get a call from Brother Guy, our ward mission leader. He says, "Sisters, we have some bad news. AJ might have to work on Saturday. But he still wants to get baptized on Saturday no matter what so it might just have to be in the evening." We prayed so hard that he wouldn't have to work but he did. So we moved the baptism to 8pm that evening. We asked the elders how long it takes to fill the font because they had a baptism a few weeks ago. They told us 2-3 HOURS. We were like okay okay we can do this. But Brother Guy was like, "I can fill the font, no worries". There was also a ward activity that night 6-8pm so the baptism was just going to be right after. We get to the church about 6:30 and Sister Stubbs gets the feeling that we should check the font. So we go check on it and it's empty! We never even asked how to turn it on because we didn't need to. So we said a prayer and asked to know how to turn on the font and for the font to fill quickly. As soon as we opened our eyes I saw the lever to turn on the water. Right next to the hot water lever there was a lever for cold water. So maybe the water was a little chilly but at least there was water! 

Sherman is awesome. She told us everytime she picks up the Book of Mormon she can't put it down. However, she still hasn't come to church. We are a little disappointed but hopefully we can bring General Conference to her this week and that will inspire her to come to church. 

We had another lesson with Ercel and it went really well! We invited him to be baptized and he said he would think about it. He really likes having us come over and teach us but he also has not come to church yet! That's what we should focus on especially with General Conference this weekend! 

The air force base is in our area and sometimes we see these HUGE airplanes. They seriously look like whales flying through the sky. It's my favorite thing. There are a lot of members in our ward that work at the base so we are hoping to get on and look at the planes up close!

General Conference is the best time of the year! Just think, select men and women have been chosen to speak to the whole world! If you listen with a purpose. Meaning if you listen with questions in mind I can promise that those questions will be answered. General Conference is a great place to receive personal revelation. There is a quote by Robert D. Hales where he says, "In conferences we can receive the word of the Lord meant just for us." (Thanks for the quote mom) General Conference is for you! I love you all and I hope to be able to hear what you learn from General Conference this weekend! 

-- 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

You sound like a goat. In labor!

So we have this cute old lady in the ward named Sister Temple. Everytime I talk to her she leaves my in tears. The kind of tears that come from laughing not from crying. We were at the Relief Society birthday party and another lady in the ward, Sister Balcena had one of those party things that you blow into and it unrolls. Do you all know what I'm talking about? Anyway, Sister Balcena kept making this weird noise to make it sound like this party favor would make noise. Sister Temple comes up to her and says, "You sound like a goat. In labor." Probably the funniest part of my life.

Not much happened this week. We went to Golden Retraining on Wednesday and then a mission tour on Friday so it made for long days in Broomall. Long but good!

We taught AJ on Thursday and it was awesome as always. He comes straight from work so he is super tired but he soaks it all in and just loves it all. He asked us that night, "I don't think I have to work on Saturday anymore. Can I get baptized then?" We were like we want you to but you still have to get interviewed! He had his interview on Sunday and it went great so he is ready to roll on Saturday! Please keep him in your prayers because we know Satan is going to work hard this week! 

Friday was the mission tour and Elder Brent H. Nielson of the seventy came and it was amazing because he is also head of the Missionary Department so he knows his stuff. It is just amazing to be able to go into meetings like that or even just our normal meetings on Sunday. Answers to questions come if you come prepared. Heavenly Father doesn't just want us to just grin and bear it through all our meetings. He wants to give us answers and the best place to do that is through the scriptures and our church meetings. 

Sunday we met with a couple named the Buzards. They have been less active for years and years. We asked them what steered them away and it was just the fact that Brother Buzard got a job where he had to work on Sundays. They had just recieved their temple recommends when that happened. They just got out of the habit of coming to church. But they do want to come back. They would love to go to the temple. It just has to start with getting back to church and reading the Book of Mormon everyday. That is how we stay anchored to the rod and stay on the path. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Get ready for General Conference! It's going to be amazing! (As always)

-- 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

We were trying to measure our couch

The Relief Society Birthday party!

I love my Sister Stubbs

Dover had a St. Patrick's day parade complete with a man and his cart selling souvenirs 

The circle of life

Just pranking the zone leaders