It's almost March...

Hey Howdy Hey! Not too much happened this week. We had district meeting and interviews with President Randall. I know I have probably said this before but he is literally my favorite person ever and I'm pretty sure the PPM has the BEST mission president ever. After interviews we went on exchanges and Sister Kuta was my companion for the day! And all of our plans cancelled as soon as we started out day! That was super fun. We stumbled upon this sketchy nieghborhood and tried to knock some doors. There was like broken glass in some yards, I felt like I was back in Philly. No one was home and the one guy who did talk to us wasn't the nicest so we just left.

We had dinner with Sister Temple who is the cutest, funniest old lady I have ever met. She was telling us about her Words with Friends games and how she is so bad at it. I told her how I used to play that with my grandma but she would always win. Then she told me when I get home I should get it and play her and I will win and feel good about myself. 

Yesterday when we were knocking this lady that answered wasn't interested. She shut the door and we walked over to the next door. (We were knocking in an apartment complex) Then all of a sudden she opens the door again and says, "come here. I have someone that is interested in talking to you" We walk in and she introduces us to her cousin who is a minister. Sister Stubbs and I braced ourselves to get bashed. But it never came. He told us how he studied with missionaries years before in Florida and how he just loves the Latter-day Saints. He told us he knew about our new president and he was excited to see what President Nelson is going to do. He told us how impressed he was with us going out and preaching the word. I LOVE moments like those. When people of different faiths can talk for a few minutes of what really matters. Jesus Christ and how He brings peace into our lives. That is why I am a missionary. To bring others to that same knowledge. So thank you Brother Banks. Thank you for just talking with us and praying with us.

We had a lesson with Julien this week and it was again awesome. But then we found out something crazy! We were looking through our area book and he's already in there! He was taught by missionaries a couple years ago but then was dropped because they weren't able to contact him anymore. He never even told us he had met missionaries before! We haven't told him that we know yet but we will soon. Just tune in next week for an update.

We met with Sherman!!! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was just like yeah okay makes sense. We walked in her house and she was like, "I've been learning about the Melchizedek and Aronic priesthood." Okay Sherman you are so awesome. We set her with a date of March 31 so keep praying for her! 

AJ came to church yesterday and brought his two kids. He has a son that's 10 and a daughter that's 11. They were so cute and they loved church so much! It sounds like the mom was cool with them coming to church so we are hoping to start teaching them soon as well so we can get the whole family baptized! 

"...my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay;" ( Moroni 7:29) I know that we see miracles everyday. God Is always watching out for us. I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven that loves me so much to give me opportunities everyday to be apart of a miracle. I love you all sooo much and please look for miracles in your lives this week because I know they are there.

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Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

We may or may not have bought 3 packs of Oreos last week...

When your Sunday night dinner appointment cancels...

We love to clean the church! (And where pants)

The gang

Sister Kuta!

Us, Johnny, Julien, and Brother and Sister Siebach at the ward Valentine's day dance.

Sunday Candy

Dover is the Celestial area! That is all I have to say.

But seriously, I could end my email right there and that's all you would need to know. I guess I should give some evidence to WHY Dover is the greatest.

1. We have AJ. So our ward mission leader is Brother Guy. Brother Guy is amazing because he goes out tracting by himself and is always finding people for us to teach. In his mind, he does the finding and we do the teaching and then everyone gets baptized. So AJ is Brother Guy's nephew and he was actually living in the Harrington ward and the sisters down there did a great job teaching him the first lessons and setting him with a baptism date! We are so grateful because he is SO awesome! 

2. We got kicked out of someone's house. Now I know what you all are thinking, "how is that a good thing". Some background. We received this bible referral for a man named Robert. We set up an appointment and find a women to come with us and get everything ready. We get there and someone lets us in and then we here, "Now WHO are YOU?!" We look up and this powerful lady is staring down at us. We respond, "We are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" She replys, "Well I am Pastor Joyce from the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST". Yes we were a bit intimidated. But she let us come in and she went and got her brother, Robert. Pastor Joyce and some of her other family members were in the other room and while we were talking they were being kind of loud. Then we hear Pastor Joyce say, "shhh, they are having a bible study in there." That was perfect because the spirit was then able to be heard by Robert. We continued to testify of the Book of Mormon and the spirit grew stronger. All of a sudden, Pastor Joyce comes in the room and says, "You do not beleive in the same Jesus we do. You have 10 minutes to finsih and get out of my house." That was scary but we bore our final testimonies and scooted.

3. We have been tracting a lot of apartments and we found a girl named Zinnia and a lady named Sherman. Zinnia doesn't have any belief in God or anything but she is super open to meeting with us and we are super excited. But Sherman is who we are most excited for. We knocked on her door and her daughter actually anwered. We asked if she would be interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon and she said yes but she said she thinks her mom would be more interested and to come back tomorrow at the same time. We came back and that's when Sherman answered the door. She said she couldn't meet but to come back on Saturday. We said okay and we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it. Saturday comes and we have such an amazing lesson. Sherman says, "Tell me more about Joseph Smith." So we taught the Restoration and she goes, "yes but there's more. A man comes to visit him in his room and gets brighter and brighter" and she goes on to tell us about Moroni who she read about in the beginning of the Book of Mormon. Then we invited her to be baptized and she said, "Yes! I want to be baptized! Come back soon so I can be baptized!" We are SO excited.

4. Johnny and Julien are amazing but they also make my brain hurt. So I think I mentioned Johnny in past emails. So the last time we met with him it felt like he didn't really want to meet with us again but we wanted to keep trying. The ward was having a Valentine's dance Saturday night so Saturday afternoon we went over to invite him. Julien was there as well and we told them were both welcome to come but honestly I didn't think they would show up. But they came! They talked to us and Brother Siebach who is awesome and speaks French and they also speak French and we just talked for like two hours. At one point Johnny stood up to go but Julien was like can we stay for like 10 more minutes. Then they asked us to come over the next day. We came by to have a lesson and let me tell you, it is awesome but also intimidating. Johnny leads some sort of congregation and we think Julien is going to school to be a pastor. Julien was like can we meet everyday and talk about the Bible and the Book of Mormon? They are so fantastic.

I absolutly love being a missionary. I don't want to do anything else. To have this amazing opportunity to testify of Christ everyday and see the joy that comes to people as they read the Book of Mormon is so special. I hope all of you take the chance to be a missionary to others. Find the joy in helping others come to Christ. It doesn't have to be big like giving someone a Book of Mormon. Sometimes it starts with being a good example. I love you all and miss you tons! I hope you all have a week full of sunshine!

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Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

 Car selfies ♡

 Zone Conference

 

Elizabeth! She's my fav and shoutout to Sister Shields for her dress.

I saw these socks last week (shoutout to the pun master-sis. neuf 

Because I'm falling for ya

Greeting you goosers! 

What a week in Dover. Or should I say what a week not in Dover? On Tuesday we went up to Broomall for transfers. President Randall had called me the night before and had asked me to bring my stuff because I wasn't going to be staying in Dover. I ended up being in Morrisville with the fantastic Sister Gassaway while we waited for our companions. I have been to Morrisville a few times on exchanges so it felt like coming home! And Sister Gassaway is one of my most favorite humans ever so we laughed a lot. I think the best was when we were waiting for President in the chapel of the Broomall building. I went to see if there was a simplified hymn book on the piano. There wasn't so I went to walk down the stairs back to the pew we were sitting at. I didn't do a very good job walking down the stairs because I just fell! I basically fell off the podium and Sister Gassaway fell over from laughing so much! 

Since I was gone for 3 days not much has happened. Wait! My new companion! I almost forgot to introduce her! Sister Stubbs is from Kanab, UT. The land where they stick a dummy in a police car at the edge of town to give you one more heart attack as you are leaving. She said she's never had a speeding ticket or anything though. She is super sweet and I'm so excited to be her companion! We are going to have so much fun!

We taught Johnny yesterday! Well kind of. His friend Julien was there and we brought the Siebachs which was great. They both speak French and Brother Siebach speaks French because he served his mission in Quebec. But Julien just started asking questions. Which was great! But Johnny didn't really say much and we really wanted to invite him to church and to be baptized. 

We had dinner with the Siebachs after our lesson and we started talking about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost testifies and teaches what we need to know about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Julien believed a lot of the same things we did but he received that knowledge by studying and finding proof for it. When we brought up a doctrine like living before we came to earth, he did not agree. He did not think that he could have that understanding because there weren't very many scriptures that talk about it. He does not understand what the Holy Ghost's role is. If he takes the time to read the Book of Mormon and pray about this idea that we lived before we came to earth, the Holy Ghost will be able to testify that it is true. That goes for each and every one of us. If we take the time to read the Book of Mormon and pray and LISTEN to what the Holy Ghost is trying to tell us, we will understand. 

Have a great week and enjoy this one picture of Sister Gassaway and I! Love you all and have a terrible Valentine's day without me!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

We saw an Amish man riding a scooter

So there are a lot of Amish down here in Dover and sometimes we see them with their horse and buggy but sometimes they ride these super cool scooters! They look like bikes but instead of a seat and pedals, it's just a place for your foot. 

But anyway back to the amazing life of Sister Van Buskirk! First off, Sister Shields is getting transferred! I will miss her but I am excited for her to be in a new area! 

Just a few highlights from the week:

-Lesson with Phanord was good. We were able to find some really great concerns like the fact that he isn't sure if the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ. He sees it more of just stories. Also, he doesn't know if Joseph Smith is a prophet. Now we know how to help him so we are excited!

-We had a zone meeting with President and it was fantastic as always. 

-We helped Sister Siebach make some blankets while we talked about some doctrine stuff because she is the seminary teacher out here. 

- We got to clean the church! That's always super fun except a bunch of men from the two wards always play basketball so when we went in the gym after they finished it smelled disgusting.

-We weren't able to meet with Johnny this week but hopefully soon!

-The Eagles won the Super Bowl!!! Take that Jeremy! 

- We got a new ward mission leader, Brother Guy. He is AWESOME. Before he was called he would basically just go tracting by himself. Everyone in his neighborhood has a Book of Mormon. He's really going to help the members of the Dover Ward get moving as far as missionary work. 

That's all kids! Keep reading the Book of Mormon and building your testimony! President Randall challenged us to read the Book of Mormon between Christmas and Easter and as I have been reading and focusing on Jesus Christ, I have come to know more fully that He is my Savior. That there is no way we can get through this mortal life without Him. I love Jesus Christ and I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity I have to bear testimony of Him every single day. I love you all so so so so much!

Lots of Love!
Sister Van Buskirk

Cactus Bend!

We are so excited to clean the church!

High quality zone, low quality pic