The air of Pennsburg smells like chocolate

This week was transfers and Sister Cragun is still my trainer in the good old area of Milford. 

Tuesday we met with the Trexler family. They are of the do good things religion. We talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormom. Sister Trexler was interested in reading it and "putting it to the test". She said she had always wanted to read it so it was perfect! They are not one of those families that you find and baptize in a transfer but who knows. Miracles happen everyday. 

Wednesday we had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast and we got a new Schedule! It is s awesome! We have so much more flexibility and I have noticed how much more successful we have been because of it and it has only been a few days!

Thursday we still hadn't heard from Shayne even though we had called and texted her several times so we decided to make her some cookies and drop by her house to see if she would talk to us. She was home and she let us in. She explained to us that she is really scared of the Rapture (not sure what it is but we think it's when the devil comes or something and terrible things happen) and being led away by the devil. She had read some things on the interweb (we all know how dangerous that is) specifically about plural marriage and she got scared. We discussed it and shared some scriptures with her and that helped. It just showed us how important the spirit is. She recognized that when ever came over she felt good and then when she left and the spirit left she became confused. We planned to have a lesson on Friday and Friday morning we got a text from a member, JoAnna  (she hates when we call her Sister Duemmel)  JoAnna owns her own antique store but she decided to g to the thrift store for something instead of opening her store on time. Shayne volunteers at that store a couple times a week and so she decided to go Friday morning. We had told JoAnna about Shayne and Shayne about JoAnna so they officially met there. We got a text from JoAnna saying she met her and they were going back to her store to talk. JoAnna shared her conversion story and Shayne told us later that this sounds like the path she needs to be on!!! What?! Can someone be anymore ready to be baptized?! We are so excited.

That's pretty much the exciting parts of my week. We just keep knocking doors and serving others. I love this work. It's people like Shayne that makes me want to do this forever. Just seeing the spirit testify to her and feel the spirit guiding us while we teach is amazing. Seeing her faith grow in every aspect, I know I am not doing anything except I am a tool. 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

                                                It started snowing while we were emailing. 

We burned the first batch of cookies. Don't worry we made Shayne new ones.

Sister Cragun, me, and Sister Young after district meeting. 

Giant dog named New

Again New

 I love New

I love snow

Snow is cold

Jk I still love the snow

 Hot chocolate is life

Nutella

Wow its been a couple weeks!

So last Friday we decided to walk to a less actives house and knock on the way. She technically lives in the next town over but Main Street is the same street in both towns. It is very confusing. Anyway, we had a miracle. As we were walking I thought, "wow this is so much farther than we thought maybe we should walk back and drive" but then I was like nope we gotta keep going. There was just something that was pushing us to keep going. Sister Cragun said she had the same thoughts. Anyway, we found the most golden of gold investigators. Her name is Shayne and she is the most prepared person we have ever met. We told her about the Book of Mormon and she was so interested in it! We met with her on Monday and the spirit that was in that lesson was amazing. We taught the restoration and invited her to be baptized February 19 which is so soon but she is so ready. We were supposed to meet with her again on Friday but she was sick. Hopefully she will call us today so I can have another lesson because she was so excited to learn more. At the end of our lesson she was like okay what's next? I love her so much!! 

Another funny Sister Cragun story: We were visiting this man Paul Curtis who lives in a nursing home and we try and stop by once a week to share a message. Well Sister Cragun was talking and then all of a sudden he points at her and says, "why aren't you a man?!" Apparently he was referring to the fact that she is a strong speaker and so she should be a priest (we think he forgets he is a member sometimes...). 

We went to the temple on Wednesday!! The Philadelphia Temple is so beautiful!!! Sister Johnson and Sister Jacoby took us down. So Sister Cragun wanted to take me to Tommy's Lunch Truck so while we were walking out of the welcome center we ran into Sister Prince and her companion. Sister Prince was Sister Cragun's companion before me and it was like they hadn't seen each other in 12 years. Sister Prince and her companion came with us to the temple and then out to lunch with Sister Johnson and Sister Jacoby. We went to Reading Terminal Market for lunch after the temple (we had Tommy's Lunch Truck before the temple because that is not excessive) 

That's pretty much the excitement the past too weeks. I eat too much Nutella and I love Sister Fuentes's onion and tomato salad so I think something is wrong with me. Anyway, families are forever and I love the temple because of that. I know that if we let the spirit guide us we will not go astray or miss opportunities to share the gospel. I hope you all have a fantastic week and remember to always focus on Christ. 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

 Philly temple

Me eating my first Philly Cheese steak

Don't call it a philly cheese steak. Just call it a cheese steak or people will know you aren't from around here. 

Tommy's Lunch Truck

Me at Tommy's Lunch Truck

 Waiting for my cheese steak

Reading Terminal Market with the gang.

Selfies for days

Sister Jacoby and Sister Johnson aka angels.

Sister Cragun and I.

Me in front of the temple.

Again me and the temple.

Why am I sending so many pictures of me? I have no idea. 

Our district leader is dying (he's going home).

 The district. 

Sister Cragun makes me pose weird for pictures. 

I woke up the other morning with Nutella on my arm. How did it get there? I have no idea... I think Sister Cragun is secretly feeding me at night. 

No time to email

So I forgot to tell you last week but we are going to the temple on Wednesday so that will be our PDay and not today. I just didn't want you to worry that you didn't get an email from me. Also we got permission from our STLS to email you so don't worry about that. I'm not sure if we get to email on Wednesday so we will see. Love you!

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

My comp got hit on while I was on exchanges

We had golden retraining on Tuesday which was amazing because President Randall is the best mission president in the entire world. There is no contest. Then we went to Texas Roadhouse with the other sisters in our district because Sister Cragun had a gift card (boom fantastic night.) Wednesday we spent the day in Emmaus street contacting. We met a guy named Joseph who seems interested but we texted him yesterday and we haven't heard from him. We are going to stop by tomorrow and see if he will want to talk to us. Later we met a guy named Frank who was very interested in his family history. We texted him last night but it sounds like we might have to wait a while before we can help till he gets out of jail... Maybe once we start the lessons with him he will stop going to jail. 

Friday we had dinner with Arline (for those who might not remember Arline, she was the old lady who told us we were hurting her by making her read her scriptures.) She had made Pork Roast and Sourkrout (I don't know how to spell and I don't have spell check) on New Year's day for her son but he ended up not being able to make it so she decided to invite us over to eat it with her. Sister Cragun spent the week telling me how gross it is but it actually wasn't terrible. Sister Cragun also admitted that it wasn't as bad as the one she had before. 

We went on exchanges that night after dinner. So on Saturday I was in Stroudsburg all day. It was really fun. We taught a couple less actives and their most recent convert. It was cool to be able to learn from another missionary. 

But back in Milford, Sister Cragun and Sister Neufer found a potential investigator. I think they said he was about 18. Long story short he thought Sister Cragun was cute and after we made it clear she wasn't going to date him, he wasn't super interested in hearing out message. 

Not a super exciting week but still a good one. I hope everyone is doing well and had a great fast Sunday. Fast Sunday is such a great day to reflect on your Savior and how you can better be an example of Him and to share your testimony of Him. I know this church is true and I am so grateful to have this opportunity to go out and share that with others everyday. 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

None of you will know me in the year 2017

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone had a great New Year's and you all made some awesome resulutions! 

This week was kind of blahh... We tracted most of the time which for some reason I love doing (probably because I feel productive even if we don't talk to very many people). We met one kid named Eric who seemed interested but we haven't gotten ahold of him since because we asked him to talk to his parents about meeting with us. We went knocking down this one street and knocked on one door and the lady looked out the window and said something but I didn't understand what she said so I knocked again. Then she banged on the door and yelled, "GO AWAY!! WE DON'T WANT ANY!!!" Whoops... The next house was Diane. She is a Born Again Christian and she travels around the world to bring others unto Christ. She invited us in and we talked for like an hour. She has an incredible testimony and so much faith, she just is scared of the Book of Mormon. Oh well, maybe later in life her heart will soften. Then we met Chris who also is a Born Again and we are going to take him a Book of Mormon later this week. Last night we were struggling so we decided to pray for a miracle. Then the next door we knocked on was Alex. He is kind of weird, like he believes in conspiracy theories, aliens, and reincarnation but he wanted to hear our message about Christ so I am hopeful he will become our new investigator. 

Yesterday Sister Cragun and I had to lead Singing Time in primary and there was only like 7 kids there which is so weird to me. I guess I have just lived in the west too long. 

Sister Cragun hit a curb this week but we popped the bumper back in place mostly... and we went to Aldis this week!!! #greatestplaceever #dontforgetyourquarter

Not a super fun week but hopefully this week will be better! I love you all and I love hearing from some of you! I know that the New Year is a great place to repent and start anew. I know that through Christ we can be forgiven of all our sins and that should be something to rejoice in. 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk