"I have one failed marriage under my belt, and now I'm engaged to a Muslim!"

Don't worry everyone I'm still alive! Sorry it's been a couple weeks. Well tomorrow is transfers and... I'm leaving Milford! I'm sad but excited to meet some new people! I think I'm going to Philadelphia so that's going to be exciting.

Well a little about the last two weeks:

Mary got her blessing last Monday and it was really nice. She said she felt a lot of peace and comfort and that it lasted a few days. That Friday we taught about the Book of Mormon. She thought Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon... but we got that straightened out and she is excited to read it from the beginning. This past Saturday we met with her and we got to meet her daughter Simone! Simone is so cool. She goes to college in Maine but she's home for the summer. Before we got there she read the Restoration and plan of Salvation pamphlet and had some questions for us. After we talked about it she was like, yeah it makes sense. And she is excited to read the Book of Mormon with her mom! 

Sister Crane and I made a plan of Salvation game for the Wiesner family and it was so fun! They were all making jokes about being in Spirit Prison or not being born and stuff. 

We had dinner with the Applegates last week and funny story about them. Sister Applegate is from Mexico and is a member. Brother Applegate is from America and is not a member. Brother Applegate is not super into the church but he comes every Sunday with his wife. A few weeks ago at the Spaghetti dinner Sister Fuentes's parents were there and they know Brother and Sister Applegate. Brother Gillis (Sister Fuentes's dad) Walker over and was like, "oh hey when did you get baptized!" Brother Applegate's face kind of hardened and he said, "I didn't." And then Brother Gillis goes, "Well why not!" It was so funny, Sister Crane and I almost died trying not to laugh. 

Saturday we went to the temple with Sister Glaser from the branch, Sister Hahn from the Kutztown ward, and Beth (I don't know her last name) from Bethlehem ward. They are in their 50s but are best friends and so they act like they are in their 20s. I couldn't help thinking, this is me in 30+ years with Hannah and Jessica... I love the temple though. The Philadelphia temple is just so pretty. 

So the Spanish elders became obsessed with Quakertown recently. Quakertown is a our area but they wanted to see if they could find more Hispanics to teach and they asked us if we had met any before. I have been here for almost 6 months and I don't think I have met a Hispanic yet. But they had faith and were determined and so they spent the day and found one lady. But then she was able to tell them where more people were and so now they are obsessed. They found us 8 new people to teach and set up appointments which was so wonderful of them but then we met 2 of them and had to reschedule the appointments... Then on Saturday we had to be in Quakertown all day and they called us and told us they were going to Quakertown! Elders are so weird. 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Fuentes family! Matteo, Sister Fuentes, Nico, Brother Fuentes.

Ramsden dinners! We have dinner with the Ramsden's every Monday night and it's the best. Sister Crane, Sister Ramsden, Me, Sister Marina, Brother Ramsden, and his mom sitting down.

We were waiting for a lady named Holly to show up but she never did.

The Roos family! 

The Johnson's!

The Pennsburg Borough

We made the Wiesner family for our game.

The Wiesners!

Aww Sister Crane!

Our Mary!

 The District

Not sure what's happening...

Again elders are weird...

Exchanges with Sister Burrell and Sister Norman.

                                                                              Elders in Quakertown... 

Sorry Mom!

Hey so we went to the temple today and it took longer than we thought so we are just making today a full P-day. Sorry this is a lame email. I promise I'll send a good one next week. Also, if this comes later than 6pm here its because our wifi in our apartment is dumb and it sent when I had good wifi. I'm not being disobedient! Hope you enjoy the picture! Love you all!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Cacti are a Nuisance to the Community

Happy Mother's day to all you mothers! 

We taught this lady named Rosemary this week and she has cacti in her front yard. She got a letter from someone saying they were a nuance to the community and they were shooting needles at people and she needed to do something about them. She was like someone's dog probably ran into them and they complained. She said who cares I'm leaving them. She is so funny. 

We also taught the Wiesner family this week. They are a less active family and their two youngest children are old enough to be baptized. Sister Cragun and I taught them and then they asked us to not come by for a while. They continued to come to church and for the past couple months they have been to church every week and have even come to all the branch activities. Sister Crane and I decided to take over some cookies a few weeks ago and then Sister Wiesner asked us to come back and finish teaching their kids so they could get baptized! On Friday we went over and did a puzzle that we made with questions on the back of the pieces. We had a really good discussion and hopefully in the next month or so their kids can be baptized. 

Sister Crane and I have been teaching a woman named Mary who I have talked about before (last week even). It started because Mary wanted to get her house organized and clean and so she prayed and had the thought to call Sister Cubbage, a member in our branch. She doesn't know Sister Cubbage very well, she only knows her because their daughters were best friends in school. Sister Cubbage tells Mary that she knows two great sisters that would be more than willing to help and Mary said okay but she's not converting. For the past 2 1/2 months we'very been helping her clean and then we would share a short message, usually a video. She loved them. Every single one we shared seemed to be for her at the right moment. In April we invited her to watch General Conference. She tried really hard to watch it and was able to watch parts but stuff kept popping up. A few weeks ago we decided to start teaching her the lessons. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. Then we taught her the Restoration. As she read Joseph's testimony, the spirit filled the room and Mary had no words. We decided to end the lesson there since she seemed a bit overwhelmed. Friday, Sister Crane and I talked about inviting Mary to be baptized. We taught about the priesthood and asked if she would like to recieve a priesthood blessing. Immedietly she said her heart is telling her yes she would like one but she is hesitant because she doesn't know what that means. We explained it and she said yes. She asked if her daughter could be there and we said yes it would just mean waiting a week or two which she was okay with. A few hours later we got a text from her though saying she had been praying and she feels a sense of urgency to receive the blessing. We set it up with the elders and we are going over tonight. 

I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us. Mothers are so important in our lives. I am so grateful for my mother and her example of love. Because of her love I know that my Heavenly Father loves me. 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

                                                 We found a Little Free Library so we put a Book of Mormon in it. 

Now we just gotta wait for a phone call! 

Apparently this is Sister Crane's favorite president. 

 I just wanted to photo bomb. 

                                                                                  The Inside Scoop.

 Aren't we cute 😉

Okay maybe not so much...

Ahh dad made a bunt cake! Hope it was good fam bam!

My cute family ❤

$105 Apple Pie

We had a really great week. I know some of you look forward to my emails because there's funny things but this week I just wanted to write about 3 lessons we had this week. In all three lessons we taught/discussed the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had three different outcomes. Wait but first let's talk about the weather. It's been so cold!! I put my tights back on yesterday! What the hecky Becky it's May! 

Wednesday- We taught a woman named Chrystal. We've taught her before and taught the Restoration but she doesn't understand the need for a prophet or the Book of Mormon. We talked about the priesthood and read scriptures about the Priesthood but she is definitely does not have her heart open to let the spirit testify. She thinks the organization of the church is great and that our leaders obey the commandments and don't argue about who gets to be the next prophet (well yes because they are called of God not by man. When God is in charge there is no contention) She says she is praying about it but we feel like she keeps having more questions than she is getting answers. 

Thursday- We taught Destiny. Destiny doesn't have a super strong belief in God. She hardly has one actually. It was a really great lesson. We asked her what she thought about Joseph Smith's vision and she said it was kind of fantastical but if it's true then it's amazing. We taught her how to pray and we invited her to pray right then about it. We said a kneeling prayer and she thanked Heavenly Father for us and asked to have help to understand  (basically she prayed to have her heart softened) She said it was weird to pray and we told her well yeah you've never done it before. We asked her to pray again this week and read from the Book of Mormon and she said she would try. 

Friday- We taught Mary. Mary is the sweetest. She has been through so much and is working on relying on her Heavenly Father. We had her read Joseph's testimony and she had no words. The spirit was so strong, it was almost tangible. She was going to reread the pamphlet we gave her and continue to read the Book of Mormon. 

It's so amazing to see how differently everyone has been prepared by Heavenly Father to hear our message but it's the way they use what they already know and if they choose to accept it or not. 

Friday the branch had its spaghetti dinner and dessert auction (that I'm pretty sure every ward has) An apple pie went for $105 and apparently that's low compared to other years. Then again all the members think we starve (which might be true. Just kidding mom we eat.) so they gave us like all the pasta and like so much junk food. We were so sick that night, Saturday was terrible. 

I love Pennsylvania and the people in the Milford Branch. I'm so grateful to be a missionary here. I've learned so much about charity and service here. 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Sister Ramsden got a cheesecake for Sister Crane's Birthday because she is the best.

We flew kites for her birthday. 

 F(ly)inding Dory

Sister Crane is an expert kite flyer

Cacti!! Love seeing cacti in PA

We don't take enough to pictures

 Probably because she won't take pictures with me. 

 Went to Rita's today! 

Head Stands

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is Sister Crane's Birthday! Yay! We are going to have a party as Sister Duemmel cuts out hair. 

We had a fun week though. Last week we knocked a door and the lady said she was about to go to sleep because she has to work the night shift. We asked if we could come back and she said during the week. So Tuesday we went back and shared the Book of Mormon with her. I testified that the Book of Mormon and the Bible go together and without one you're missing something. She goes, "oh so I'm missing something. We'll I guess I better read it." We gave her a copy and we have a lesson tomorrow with her. She said she was going to read it and I really think she will. 

Wednesday we had interviews with President so a great day. Then we had dinner with the Fuentes and Sister Fuentes made Pad Thai and it was the first time I had ever had it and it was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. I love going there because who knows what we are going to eat for dinner. It's always good so I'm never worried. 

Thursday did not start off the best. Arline passed away last week. I think I have talked about her in my emails before. I think the very first time I met her she told us we were hurting her because we were encouraging her to read her scriptures.... But she was funny and we loved her. We went to her funeral and it was so interesting. None of her family members were members and it was so sad to see them so upset. One of her sons got up to speak and could only say about 2 sentences because he was so upset. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have about the plan of Salvation and that I will be able to see Grumps again.

We did not get to meet with Pebody this week because his girlfriend's son got hurt and he was on lots of pain medication and I guess that makes him crazy. But this week we will teach him! 

We taught Maureen and Steven a few times this week. We went over yesterday and tried to have a lesson. Key word for this story is tried. We called Maureen before we walked over (They live down the street from us) to see if we could come over. She said she was having a rough day but yeah we could. Well we get there and apparently they had been fighting most of the day. So we go inside with Maureen and start talking to her, wait sorry, she starts talking to us. The thing about East Coast people is they talk a lot A LOT! and you can never get a word in. Maureen is the same way except she's hard to follow. Like the dog from the movie Up when goes "squirrel!" That's Maureen except there's about 100 different squirrels and beavers and rabbits that she sees. Then Steven finally comes back inside ( I won't say what he was doing outside but it's something everyone in PA does) he was like, "I want you girls to pick out a drawing"  Steven is an artist and he draws cute like barn scenes and stuff. So we picked one out and then we tried to start the lesson. We read a scripture and then asked Maureen a question and then who knows what happened. All of a sudden she opens to Alma 25:8 and reads it! (Look up the scripture. It's fantastic) We were like what the heck just happened. She wasn't even fazed by it. She just kept talking. We just gave up, said a prayer, and left. We love them so much though. 

I love being a missionary. It is the hardest challenge I have ever faced but I love every minute of it. There are disappointments all the time but one constant is that the Savior is always there. I love the scriptures and the peace and comfort it brings me. I hope you all feel that too. I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

 Car Selfies. Notice our kites in the back. You never know when it might be windy to go fly a kite. 

Classic Selfie

Got some yum yum donuts because why not

The pictures we got from Steven

 Love Steven

Sister Fuentes sent us home with leftovers <3

I get bored with weekly planning

                                     This is our drive to Whitehall. We thought it would be cool but it's just super fast. Sorry.