"Wait to have children until you're financially stable"

Sister Neuffer and I had a crazy week but actually nothing really happened. Mostly a lot more awkward encounters. Here are a couple for your enjoyment: 

We just recently talked to the elders about our boundary lines because there was some confusion about where their area stopped and ours started. They have a giant area so they were like, "you know what, you can have that chunk plus some." We were like, "awesome! Yes!" So we asked President if that was cool and he was okay with it so the other day we decided to go exploring. Basically the minute we cross the street into our new area a guy calls out, "y'all got boyfriends?" Sister Neuffer turns around and goes, "Sorry!" And then all his friends start laughing at him as we walk quickly and with purpose. 

We were on the bus and this guy waves at me. I wave back and then spend the next few minutes trying to figure out how he knew me. Did we talk to him on the street? Did I sit by him on the bus? But we talk to so many people a day I just could not figure it out. Well this guy is about to get off the bus and then he turns and says, "you got a number?" Again, Sister Van Buskirk the missionary thought that he recognized her as a representative of Jesus Christ and was asking for my number because he wanted to better develop his relationship with Him. As soon as I handed him a pass along card I realized that was not the number he was looking for.... 

For some reason I have had a lot of awkward bus contact recently. This one has to do with my subject line. There's a man a couple seats behind me so I turn around and invite him to church. He was appreciative and said he would try and make it sometime. Then he tells me he just had a daughter. I told him congratulations and then he tells me she's with her mom. In my head I'm like "great I'm so happy for you". Then he asks how old I am. "I'm 19" 

" Do you have any kids?" 

"Ummm... no..." 

"Good wait to have children till your financially stable"

I was so happy to get off that bus. But I think that's my new motto in life, "Wait to have children till you're financially stable" but I think I will also add marriage to that as well... 

We had a really cool miracle yesterday though. We got a phone call for a lady named Michelle that Sister Garner and her previous companion, Sister Jensen had met on the street or something and had given a card to. She said she was looking for a church, somewhere that "taught the good word the right way". She's getting settled into her new apartment but hopefully we will be able to start teaching her soon. 

I love that it's General Conference season. We were able to watch the General Women's broadcast on Saturday. I loved President Uchtdorf's talk. We don't have to let the circumstance around us or other's opinions or actions affect us. We have our agency to be "glad". It's so easy as a missionary to let the circumstances get you discouraged. Or having people reject your message over and over again. But if we keep singing and keeping pressing forward with faith, it will all work out. The great plus about being a missionary is the companion part. It's easier to keep smiling and keeping singing when you have someone to do it with you. I love you all and hope you all can strive to be the "glad sister"! 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

The Broad Street Line after a really long day :) 

Early morning Sunday meetings equals best lighting for selfies

Jesus Loves Gladys

Okay so I guess I promised yous guys some stories. So last Friday the Benjamin Franklin Parkway turned 100. So all the Mueseums and other things were letting people in for free or doing cool events. Some members opened the church up for people to come learn about family history. They asked for a bunch of sisters to come and help get people in the church and also give them a tour of the building. It was amazing! We had some elders as well talking to people on the street and then we decided to call our elders and see if they could come down and invite people on the street as well. Both of them just had lessons cancel so they were on board to have something to do. It's always just so fun to see other missionaries and work with them! 

So the big news about Tom! WE SET HIM WITH A DATE! He had a great experience at church a few weeks ago. We had a lesson about honesty that really touched him and for a week he was thinking about the lesson. When it was time for our lesson his heart had been softened and he was ready to accept a date. We set it for October 14 but he said we might be able to move it up if he can take care of a few things. So we are pumped! 

Thursday was the big day. It was the day Gladys Knight came to town. For those of you who didn't know this, Sister Knight was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1997. So she goes on tour with the Saints Unified Voices to have devotionals to help people meet with the missionaries. It was amazing! They sing gospel songs that are not the kind of songs we sing during church but I wish they were! The spirit was so strong. They sang one song about turning yourself over to God that really touched me. We also received a lot of referrals because of it and we are so excited to start teaching these people. 

This week has really been full of miracles. Yesterday, we found 5 new investigators and the past few days have just been full of good things. Sister Neuffer and I were talking about it and we haven't been doing anything extra to receive these blessings but Heavenly Father just loves us enough to give them to us. It reminded me of a quote one of my friends sent me a while back. Elder Bednar said "Ordinary people who faithfully, diligently, and consistently do simple things that are right before God will bring forth extraordinary results." That's all Sister Neuffer and I have been doing. Or at least trying to do. Heavenly Father is just helping us get to those people who are ready for the gospel. 

Last week we met this woman and her son. Charlotte and AJ. We showed them #PRINCEOFPEACE and gave them a Book of Mormon. They seemed interested so we set up a time to some back and asked if she knew anyone that would be interested as well. She told us about her neighbor Carmen. We went and talked to Carmen and it turns out she met with missionaries 12 years ago. Anyway, we went back to teach Charlotte and AJ yesterday and we were also able to teach AJ's older sister, Ronnie. It was probablythe best Restoration lesson I have been apart of. Sometimes when we teach we don't have any faith that these people will progress. For some reason the spirit that was there was different. I can't really explain it. They all seemed engaged and they liked what we were teaching and they wanted us to come back. This family is a blessing from Heavenly Father. 

I hope you all try and do the "simple things" this week. Scripture study is such a key thing. The past few days Sister Neuffer and I have not been able to have personal study and even though we are missionaries and we literally can quote scripture on the spot there is a different feeling when we don't get that time. When we have those days I try and make an effort to read later in the day. I invite you all to make it a goal to read the Book of Mormon everyday this week. Look for the blessings that come. They will be there. Have a fantastic week! I love you all so much! 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

Exchanges with Sister Beukers 

"Our district is so classy" -Sister Neuffer (Front Row: Elders Gabiola, Brown. Sisters Neuffer, Van Buskirk. Back Row: Elders Sowards, Nelson, Vargas, Othero, Ronco, White.)

"Our district is not very classy" -Sister Neuffer

Sister Neuffer and I decided we are moving back to Philadelphia and we are going to have our own neighborhood called Neukirk and then we saw a sign that said Newkirk. We are taking it as a sign. (Pun intended) (Also it was Sister Neuffer's pun. I can't take credit.) (She is my sole source of comedy. Literally the funniest person to walk into the Independece South Apartment.) (Did she make me say these things? Maybe...) 

Sunday Text from Sis. Taber

Hi. This is Christine Taber from the Independence Ward in Philly. Your dear daughters helped us prepare and serve a luncheon for Elder Gong today. They are incredible people and wonderful missionaries.

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth

I feel like everytime I have no time to write I have too much to write about but if I have all the time in the world I have nothing to write about. Sorry if this email is jumbled and doesn't make any sense. If you have any questions about what happened feel free to email me, I'll be back on Monday. 

Anyway, let's start at the beginning. Monday we had dinner and Coordination with our elders and Brother Garrett and his wife. Let me tell you, Independence Ward is on fire! We all have at least one person on date to be baptized and we are all so excited to be missionaries. And only one elder is from Utah so that's a plus. I love working with these elders, they all have such strong testimonies and so much faith. I learn so much from them. 

Tuesday I went to Morrisville (yay Sister Crane!) with Sister Williams and we saw some cool miracles! They just got a couple referrals before I got there and we were able to contact both of them during the exchange. The second one we stopped by was a bible referral named Gloria. She really stood out to me. She told us her story of how her parents didn't want her to go to school and would keep her out of school as much as they could. And then when she turned 16 they made her drop out. But she someone was able to graduate high school and made it to college and she is now working on her master's for nursing. It was just amazing hearing her strength and determination to get out of the situation she was in.  

Thursday we taught the Judge! It was probably the best lesson we have had with him. We brought Sister Marco who is a law student so he loved that. We decided to go back to the beginning and reteach prayer. We taught him how to pray and asked if he had been praying while he read the Book of Mormon. He hadn't so we read Moroni's Promise (Moroni 10:3-5) and then asked if we could kneel down and pray right then and there. He said the most judge like prayer I have ever heard. This is a direct quote from his prayer, "Please help me to know that the Book of Mormon is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." I almost feel over, I was trying so hard not to laugh. It was amazing. 

Basically the most embarrassing things happen to Sister Neuffer and I. Later that night President Randall had to call us about something and he apologized for what happened on the conference call. Every Thursday morning we have a conference call with the whole mission and President Randall started this new thing where he asks random companionships questions over the phone. But since we were teaching the Judge we weren't there. So basically now the whole mission thinks we ditched the conference call. But now President Randall is going to try and come to the Judge's lesson with us in October. 

Friday we did this really cool thing that I will talk about on Monday because I have no more time. Also, some exciting stuff with Tom. But all yous should be reading the Book of Mormon! The Judge is doing it! He loves it and can feel the spirit and so can you. Read Moroni's Promise and then get on your knees! Love you all so much!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Courtesy of Sister Neuffer.

James James James James

Okay let me think, the best part of the week. Probably when Sister Neuffer and I went to the Jay-Z concert. No we didn't actually go see Jay-Z but we definitely heard him. There was a music festival this weekend on the Parkway and we live like right by the Parkway... But this week was pretty great. Nothing too exciting but there were definitely some miracles. 

Short story: We meet a lot of middle-aged, black men named James. Before Sister Neuffer became my companion we had about 3 or 4 in our area book. This week we met like 3 or 4 more. They don't usually give us a last name so we give them one. 

Examples: James 19th Street, James 18th street, James Jefferson Street, James Church Tour, James Camac Street, James Poplar Street. 

Thursday we had Zone Conference which is always like my favorite part of the transfer. Mostly because I get to see President and Sister Randall and Sister Summers. We talked a lot about prayer and personal revelation. The missionary department has written basically a new chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel. It has changed the planning session to help us missionaries make it more of a revelatory experience. I'll give yous the short version - Pray for a specific investigator then plan specifically for them and then pray again. There's more to it than that but you all probably don't care too much about that. 

But Sister Neuffer had a cool experience with that. During Zone Conference we practiced this planning session for a specific investigator and we decided to pick Tom. The day before we had planned for him but I think we were both feeling like there was something more we needed to do for him. This new chapter 8 is 100% inspired because we were able to set goals and make plans for him that were so much better than what we originally had planned. Later during Zone Conference, we practiced teaching people how to pray and resolving concerns. Again, we picked Tom. It's amazing how the Spirit can help you in a role play and tell you things about your investigator that you need to know. I don't know if that made any sense but just know that I have a testimony of revelation. 

After Zone Conference I went on exchanges with Sister Kuta and on Friday we saw another amazing miracle. A few weeks ago Sister Garner and I met a lady named Regina on the street. She was so nice and seemed interested in our message and she told us to give her a call to set something up. Sister Kuta and I went to her apartment but she wasn't home. So we walked down the street and tried a couple more people and then as we were walking back toward her house the Spirit told me to knock on this house. We walked over, knocked on the house, told this lady about Gladys Knight but she didn't seem super interested so we just kinda left. Then we were walking back down the street and there is this line of cars and the people in the cars are looking at us. So the Spirit tells me to start smiling at them. I do and then we see this lady and she looked familiar and she saw me smiling and she yells, "are you the ladies that called me earlier?" We yelled back, "are you Regina?" It was in fact her and she was so excited to see us. We also had an amazing lesson with her and she is so excited for us to come back. I know that if I had not followed the Spirit and knocked on that lady's door, we wouldn't have seen Regina in her car. And if I didn't follow the spirit when it said to smile, she might not even had noticed us to call out to us. Follow the Spirit all yous guys! 

Saturday we took a member, Sister Marco that just moved in out with us. She served in France and she was such a good missionary. We know because of how she acted when she was with us. We stopped by a less active's house but she was busy but there were other people in her house so Sister Marco asked if we could share a message with them. She's fantastic. 

Nothing too exciting but you know what is? The Gospel. If the gospel isn't fun, you're doing something wrong. Yesterday, Andrew, one of the young men stood up to bear his testimony. He said he's been getting into conference talks. He said he tries to make time for them in his day. I love testimony meeting because not only do you hear other's testimonies but you can feel their testimonies in the room. I just love the Spirit. And Heavenly Father. And my Savior, Jesus Christ. Have a great week. I love you all. 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Our district plus the Zone leaders. They are on either side and it's blurry in the middle because it's a pano. 

One started the picture and then when he got to the middle, 

the first elder came and got the iPad and that elder ran to the end. It was pretty epic

We tried to take a cute pic last week. It didn't really work. 

  Exchanges with Sister Kuta!

Sister Neuffer is just needy. Like needs to be in all the pictures.