Sister Van Buskirk: Chitty-chitty Bang CRASH

So we had a pretty exciting week!

Monday we met with a guy named Bruce. One of the hardest things about being a missionary is when people try to prove what you believe wrong with what they believe. But the thing is, their beliefs contradicts each other. Well at least Bruce's did. The good thing is he accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back, maybe. He was just interesting.

Tuesday we were able to watch the broadcast from the First Presidency! That was so exciting and I am so grateful for President Nelson and now President Oaks and President Eyring. I am excited for what will happen in the future with the three of them. President Nelson wants us all to go to the temple. We also went on exchanges and I was able to go with Sister Summers! Companions again! We went to a member's house for dinner and the member has this huge movie collection. she spent probably an hour talking about almost every single movie and trying to make them all sound educational. She pulls out My Big Fat Greek Wedding and tries to tell us it is about a girl that is afraid to tell her family she is in love with a non-greek man and I was like, okay yes but it is also about Windex. It was SO fun being companions with Sister Summers again!!!

Wednesday was an adventure. We were going to visit a member and Sister Shields was turning on the street on what she thought was just snow. Turns out (if you get the pun please laugh) it wasn't snow. It was straight ice. So we are sliding and I didn't know what sliding on ice was so I was like, Sister Shields why aren't you turning the car? we are going to hit the curb. We did hit the curb but we were only going like 10mph so we didn't think it was going to be a big deal but it ended up braking a lot of things inside. So we dropped it off at the shop and spent all of Thursday walking which I loved because I felt like I was back in Philadelphia again. Except there weren't any other people walking around. We knocked a lot of apartments which was awesome because in Philly all the apartments are locked. We met some really nice people that we are excited to go back and see next week.

So back to the car. Mark from Pepboys told us it was going to take until next Wednesday to fix it because our car is brand new, they didn't have any parts and they would have to order them. We get a call Friday afternoon and it was fixed! Heavenly Father does answer prayers! Sister Shields also wanted me to make sure to tell you all that she is a very good driver...

Saturday was our ward party except it was a movie night and we can't watch movies... So we went at the beginning and said hi to everyone and then went to dinner with Brother and Sister Jess. Brother Jess is 85 but he runs a couple miles every day. He reminds me a lot of Grumps because he likes to tease us a lot. I told them about the tshirt we got Grumps, "I make stuff up" and Sister Jess said they needed to get that for Brother Jess. They are so fun to be around! After dinner we went back to the church building to say hi to everyone again. It was just weird because a few people brought non-member friends but we couldn't be there...

I was read Matthew 13 this week and the parable of the sower really stuck out to me. I had never really understood it until now and I was able to relate it to work as a missionary and the different people we meet. Sometimes we meet people like the seeds that fell on stony places. The seeds spring up really fast but because they have no foundation. There are people that get very excited about the gospel, they seem like the golden investigator but then they disappear off the face of the earth... Those that we teach that take a little more time are like the seeds that land in good ground. They take a while to grow but they bear so much fruit. We need to make sure we are planted in good ground so we don't become scorched by the sun. One of the best ways to do that is reading the Book of Mormon. I know it's true and I know it brings us closer to Jesus Christ! Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

Saw this pass along card while we were tracting. I guess missionaries have been here often...