#LIGHTtheWORLD

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! 

On Friday the new #LIGHTtheWORLD dropped! In Independece south however, the initiative started on a downhill slope. We tried talking to everyone we met but they were so rude! One guy swore at us and said some nasty things about Christmas. Satan was really trying to pull us down. BUT!! Then we saw some guys moving in and offered to help. For the first time in like however long I've been a missionary they actually said yes! We were able to put the message of #LIGHTtheWORLD in action! It was all uphill from there. It was just awesome to see how hard satan was working but we didn't let that discourage us and we were able to see miracles! 

Not too much happened since Thursday. We went on exchanges and we spent the whole day finding and talking to people. We met with Tom and he is doing wonderful. He is going through a lot but I have seen so much change in him. He is a very different person than when I meet him 6 months ago. It is amazing to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can change people from the inside out. Right now, the change Tom is going through is his attitude toward the trials in his life. Later, the outside changes will be to be baptized. It's going to take a while but Tom will definitely be truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

One funny story just because my email is so short. Many moons ago when I was companions with Sister Garner, two sister missionaries came to spend time in our area. Their names are Sister Neuffer and Sister Roberts. They both had companions that were dying so while they went to the temple we gave Sister Neuffer and Sister Roberts some names and addresses to stop by. Little did they know they would both serve in this area! Anyway that's it for this week. 

I hope you all take the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative seriously. It is a great way to remember Christ throughout the month of December but also throughout the year. I would love to see how you all #LIGHTtheWORLD and I will try to include what we have done here in Philadelphia! Let's all go #LIGHTtheWORLD! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Ps. If any of you care about our mouse problem still we are now at a kill count of 5! #micearenice 

 Have I ever mentioned that car selfies are the cutest selfies? 

Exchanges with Logan! 

Sister Baker is such a great missionary!

Sister Training Leader

I know you both asked last week or the week before about being a Sister Training Leader. I have some time so I thought i would take some time to explain. A Sister Training Leader is like a girl Zone Leader. We are responsible for all the sisters in our zone. The zone is the whole Philadelphia stake. There are 7 wards and about 12 companionships. 5 out of 12 companionships are sisters so we are responsible for 4 companionships of sisters. A few months ago when I was getting a new companion this is what happened. President pulled Sister Neuffer out into the hall and told us we were companions. He then proceeded to ask if we would be the Sister Training Leaders. So I have been a Sister Training Leader since I got Sister Neuffer. Sister Roberts and I are still the Sister Training Leaders. Basically, we go on exchanges with the sisters to help them with their areas or anything they need because we can't go on exchanges with the district leader, that's apostate. We also call them throughout the week to see how they are doing. That's basically it. It's been pretty fun but mostly stressful. Sister Neuffer was a Sister Training Leader for most of her mission. Actually she either trained other missionaries or she was a Sister Training Leader. So she taught me what to do and how to do things. Sister Roberts has never been a Sister Training Leader so I have to teach her but I have no idea what's going on sometimes but it's fine. We just make stuff up and hope for the best. 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Let's go swimming

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have some good turkey and stuffing and lots and lots of pie! We had a pretty good week here in the PPM! 

The adventures of Sister Neuffer and Sister Van Buskirk have ended but the adventures of Sister Roberts and Sister Van Buskirk have started off with a bang! Sister Roberts is really awesome! She's from Austin, TX and went to BYU Hawaii before her mission! 

On Saturday Lila was finally baptized! It took a long time but it finally happened! On Wednesday we met with her and she was so excited to be baptized. We were supposed to go over on Friday but she wasn't home. We were really worried. This happened a few times. Not the night before her baptism but we had to move her date back a few times because she would miss lessons. We decided if she showed up on Saturday she could get baptized because she had been taught everything. On Saturday we were stopping by some people we had some lessons with when we got a text from our ward mission leader, brother Garrett. He wanted to know if Lila was getting baptized. We called her friend, brother Harris and he told us they were on their way! He then had me talk to Lila and she explained that she woke up this morning and she knew the devil was working hard to get her to not come. But she said she finally had enough and she wanted to get baptized! It was the best thing I have ever heard. We practically ran to the church. Partly because we were having a lesson with Tom right before but partly because we had to prepare for a baptism! Sister Neuffer was able to FaceTime on of the members and watch the baptism and I had to give a last minute talk on the Holy Ghost but it was so great! Two kids that the West elders were teaching were also able to be baptized so it was a really special day to see three of Heavenly Father's children enter the waters of baptism to make those special covenants with Him. 

We also taught Tom this week. Actually like 30 minutes before the baptism started. But he was also able to stay for the baptism and that was a really good experience for him. We talked about following the prophet and then we showed him President Monson's testimony of the Book of Mormon. He really liked that President monson promised that we study, ponder, and apply the teachings of the Book of Mormon we will be able to resist temptation. We invited him to read Alma 36 and he finished it before 7 the next morning. Then he finished reading Helaman 16 around 10:30. He texted us yesterday and said he finished 3 Nephi 11! Tom is on a roll! Even though it's small, I can see such a change in him since I first met him 6 months ago. He told us he feels different, especially when he goes to church. Tom is the best!

We received a couple really amazing referrals this week but one is probably the greatest example of member missionary work I've ever seen. There is a couple in Alpine, UT, the Snyders. They came to Philadelphia last summer for the temple open house because Brother Snyder had ancestors from here and he also wanted to do some family history. While they were here they met a wonderful old lady named Sylvia. She is in her 90's but the busiest woman I've ever met. For Mother's day the Snyders sent her a book by President Uchtdorf. She absolutely loved it. They prayed about it and decided that now was the time to send her a copy of the Book of Mormon and a set of missionaries. Plot twist: Sylvia lives in the West elder's area. But President Randall decided that Sylvia should be taught by Sister Roberts and I. Crazy things happen in Philadelphia. Sylvia is just the sweetest thing. She was so grateful that the Snyder's sent her the Book of Mormon and she is excited to read it. 

Other crazy stuff:

-A guy serenaded us with a song about Jesus after we invited him to church. 

-We tried to invite a JW to church on accident. 

-A Seventh Day Adventist talked at us for about 45 minutes. I'm still confused about what he was trying to argue. But we swapped literature and went on our merry way. 

-We tried to teach a lesson in Spanish. I'm so grateful for Spanish elders. 

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve a mission. I love that I get to spend all my time serving the Lord and helping others come unto Christ. I am grateful for my family and the love they give me and I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the peace it brings in my life. I hope you all take the time this week to really look around you and thank Heavenly Father for all that He has given you. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

Our last selfie...

Our first selfie!

When the bus just drives past without picking you up...

Lila's baptism! Ft. Brother Harris.

Some of my favorite people, Sister Clemence and Kiyah

All my companions are dead

Hi everyone! Thanks for opening my email this week. I'm sure it mostly had to do with my subject line. Let me clarify somethings. As a missionary you are "born" into an area, I was "born" in Milford. Then at the end of your mission you "die". It just so happens that every single companion, Sister Cragun, Crane, Garner, and Neuffer are all going home this Wednesday. In the words of Sister Neuffer, "This is the PITS!" 

Anyway about my week here in Independence South. By the way, I'm staying for my 5th transfer! Whoop whoop! We saw so many miracles and wacky stuff this week I'm excited. 

We were able to have a lesson with Tom. He has been very busy so we haven't been able to set something up with him but he comes to church every week. The whole ward really loves him and if he's ever out of town for something and misses church, they always ask about him. We had a lesson last Sunday about the law of chastity which is something Sister Neuffer and I sensed he might have a problem with. When he met with us this week he said he loved the lesson. He said a few weeks ago he had the impression he had a problem with that and needed to change. He said he couldn't remember what he was doing or what he was reading but he knew he needed to change. We talked about the Holy Ghost and how it speaks to us in different ways to tell us what we need to know. As we talked about it, Tom said that was what he has felt at church and specifically in the Gospel Princeples lessons on Honesty and the Law of Chastity.

On Wednesday we saw the Judge! And guess what! President and Sister Randall came! That was amazing. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. It was probably one of the more focused lessons we have ever had. President also said that it was a lot better than the one he went to about a year ago with the Judge. Also, the Judge is coming to church! Hopefully. We have been slowly but steadily trying to commit him to church. One of his judge friends is actually the stake president in one of the other stakes in our mission and so he might come to stake conference on sunday. If he does, President said we could go with him! A

On Saturday, we set a goal to invite 20 people to church. Sister Neuffer had an impression to go to Fairmount, the wealthier part of our area, not our favorite part so we are hardly ever there. We went and talked to some people but no one was very interested. So we headed to our appointments. Later that day we ended up having to drop something off at home with only about an hour and a half left till our next appointment and after that we would be done for the day. We still needed to invite about 13 more people to church. We went back to Fairmount and invited about 4 more people. We really didn't have very much time left but we wanted to reach our goal. So we said a prayer and went to work. We stopped 5 people in about 3 minutes. None of them were interested but we kept moving forward. We were able to then exceed our goal by inviting 24/20 people to church. As we were heading to our appointment we saw a man standing on a corner and we decided why not. So we met Nicholas. He had been to temple square and seen a video about the Church but that was basically all he knew. He was really interested in learning more and we were able to set up a lesson with him for Thursday. 

Saturday we also had another very odd lesson. Sister Garner, I hope you know who this is about. This was a very odd lesson. John called us the day before and asked us to come over and we could have a lesson and then we could eat because it was Veteran's Day. John wanted to pick up where the sisters left off last time. We read Mosiah 5 but when John reads the scriptures, he just shouts. While we were in the lesson an ecclesiastical leader came over because John had called him earlier. John wanted him to bless the food. So he came, blessed the food, and then left. We had to go but John was upset that we couldn't eat with him. So he packed up some food for us to take home. As we were leaving another ecclesiastical leader showed up. Both of those men were very confused why we were there. We were also confused why we were there. Ruth, John's mother, was very lovely. She liked reading the Book of Mormon.

Sunday, we decided to knock the street of our referral. We received this referral a few weeks ago but never had time to knock the other houses around. While we were knocking, a woman walked around the corner we said hello and then introduced ourselves. Immediately, she burst into tears. She said she knew that God sent us to her today. We were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and set up another appointment. The best part is she lives in another apartment in the same row home as our referral. I feel like Heavenly Father has a sense of humor sometimes. 

I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers. All we asked for was to reach our goal on inviting people to church. He gave us those people even though they weren't interested. After we worked our tails off He led us to Nicholas who was prepared to hear our message. Heavenly Father doesn't usually answer our prayers in the way we want it, but they are always answered the way they should be. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

We made some defense systems against our mice! P.S. we caught two more. 

All my companions! :( This was at their departing temple trip and since the temple is in our area I just "happened" to be there. Okay actually my companion was there so I had to go pick her up. 

The Traphouse

So not much happened this week! We did a lot of finding, we actually spent a good two hours tracting. Most of our finding is done while we run around our area like chickens with our heads chopped off! We did talk to some solid people that I'm really excited about! 

Halloween was this week. I kind of imagined Halloween to be a different kind of scary than it actually ended up being. Tuesday morning we get up, go to district meeting like normal. Then we do some finding and have coordination. We have dinner with the Taber's and then are inside by 6pm. Probably around 7:30, Sister Neuffer and I are sitting on the couch. I think we were calling people trying to set stuff up. Then, Sister Neuffer goes, "hey! I just saw a mouse...." Great... We just sat on the couch for the rest of the night and we definitely saw at least two mice... The next morning we went and got mouse traps as soon as we woke up. We caught two so far but we saw another one this morning. We covered one hole and went and got more traps today. These mice are not going to stay! Stay tuned for next week's update on how many mice we have caught! 

Tom is doing great! He comes to church every week even though we haven't had a lesson with him in about 3 weeks. We just try and stay in contact over texting and see him at church. He told us that he is going to Florida in a couple weeks but he's staying until mid-February... So I suggested we could contact the missionaries in Florida for him to meet with and he said, "I was already thinking about asking you to do that. I was also going to try and find the church that's close by. You can find anything on the internet." Yes Tom Yes! But why do you have to go all the way to Florida for 4 months! But that's okay because the Florida missionaries are so lucky. 

Funny story: We were tracting and we go up to knock on this door and a woman looks out the window right before we knocked. I waved at her and she just looked at me like I was a weirdo and turned around. After we knocked (their door was open and we could see right through their screen door) a lady walked down the hall. We knocked again and we could hear voices. We knocked one more time and someone yelled, "No one is home" Great. I love tracting. 

I know my Heavenly Father loves me. I know He loves all of you. I know that because I have prayerfully studied the Book of Mormon. His love is expressed in the words of His prophets. Read the Book of Mormon. You will find peace there.

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

The streets of Philly

The Fall of Philadelphia 

The mice goin bye-bye 

Sometimes the elders are the best.

Sometimes the elders are the worst.