Sister Van Buskirk: 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!

Lots of Love!

Sister Van Buskirk

Car selfies ♡