Dylan: Trying to Speak Russian

Dear Friends and Family,

     So first off, I am transferring to my Russian email next week. I have to switch over so that wonderful Russian Government can watch everything I send and receive from out of the country, so my pictures and stories and things I say on my email will be limited. I also found out I get my own personal lawyer on speed dial, haha! I am so stoked. I can't wait to get there! 

Language Update: So this week in class I was trying to speak the Russian Ordinal numbers and my teacher, who never laughs, laughed so hard for so long that he couldn't stop that he had to leave the room. So that should give you an idea of how well I'm doing. 

Nothing too spectacular happened this week but 3 of my favorite missionaries in my zone left. And apparently another Rostov missionary is coming in tonight, so I'm stoked about that!

I love all and I hope you gain a love for the scriptures and of following the Lord's commandments! 

-Elder VanBuskirk

My beloved brethren in the vineyard looking fresh at the temple before they headed off to St. Petersburg Russia Mission!

Singing hymns at the temple in our language with my zone (which speaks 7 different languages) The tower of Babel is a good comparison on how we sounded.

We threw a Christmas party since the temple was closed on our P-day.

A really good looking drawing some Elder in my district drew ;

Hi mom,

WOW you really out did yourself in that Christmas party! I have the best Mom! That sounded like so much fun! It looked amazing! Awe I'm so proud of Alex I wish I could've been there at his farewell. He has turned into such a great man. That sounds like a great week! Sorry about the trip, that's a bummer. So for Christmas I am calling not Skyping but I think it is still on the computer, its at 12 noon Utah time, and It's only for 30 minutes. So they told me Nathan was coming down?  Awe poor Alex he just needs love. So I think I'm going to transfer over to my Russian email next week, just heads up.     Oh, and  can you send me an email with basic piano theory and how to read basic piano and stuff so I can print it off I and  give it to an elder in my zone, I'm teaching him how to play hymns. And also if you haven't sent that last package yet can you send me a bunch of .38 pens they don't have them in Russia and I need the small ink, some white flash cards that I can fit in my scriptures and one of those little flashcard boxes, I have a study plan thing I want to try out, Thanks! Nothing really happened this week but I love you!!!

Dylan: Saying Goodbye to Superman

Dear family and friends, 

  This week was a wonderful week where I learned many great lessons. The BYU Men's Chorus came Sunday night and gave us a concert! It was so powerful and reminded me of my choir days. The choir in the MTC is just the best! For all future missionaries, if you can sing or not, go join the choir in the MTC! The choir director gives the greatest spiritual thoughts and the spirit is always so strong when we sing.

   One of the presidency of the 70 came and talked on Tuesday about the importance of goal setting and why you always need to remember your "why?" in all that you do so you will be able to reach your goals and purpose. He struck my heart and opened my eyes to the importance of planning. 

   It was Elder McCallister's Birthday on Monday and you already know that we had the most insane Missionary Minion Themed Party (before quiet time of course) you could ever imagine in your most wildest dreams! I love him, he his actually going to serve in the Adriatic California Mission (L.A.) Armenian speaking. I'm very excited for him. 

   So the highlight of my week and one of my most favorite moments of the MTC was saying goodbye to my dear friend Elder Duran (aka Superman). He was serving here in the MTC so I was able to get to know him these past few weeks. We went to his dorm to say good-bye to him last Friday night, and it was very special to my heart and the spirit was so strong as he shared with his wisdom he had learned and his testimony, and shared with us some very moving scriptures, and even sang us a beautiful song. He is a wonderful example to me about always being happy and loving everyone you meet unconditionally. I hope to be half the missionary he is someday.

   I am out of time, but I love you all and will always keep you in my prayers. Never give up your hopes and dreams because that is what makes life worth living! That is how you keep going day after day, always hold on to them.

Love, 

Elder VanBuskirk

I LOVE YOU MOM

Yes, Thank you so much again for the package! That would have been fun to see Nate. If he ever comes to Utah he can come see talk to me for like an hour. I'm so excited see him when I get back to him and we get to talk Russian!! He better not forget because I'm planning on only talking to him in Russian so we can keep it up hahaha! Well I don't miss Derek yet, but the thought of 2 years and then going to different colleges where I will never see him makes really sad. Speaking of Derek, I'm not on his weekly email list!!! I'm glad you and the family had a good week! I can't believe Winder is leaving soon! How is he feeling about it? Everything has been great here; there is so much I want to improve on and change. Tell Nathan President and Sister Clarks says hi and gives them their love; they were asking all about them and can't believe he is already home! A couple thing I need that would be great if you could get them: pictures of the family and friends, Ensigns of the past couple General Conferences, a jump rope, a tie rack, and some more pomade cream for my hair. I love you so much mom, always in my prayers!

Love, your son

Derek: Captain's Log Week 5: El Campo

3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto  this generation.(D and C 31:3)

This is our last full week at the MTC, and we got a lot of praying and pranking done. So, on Friday we got to go on exchanges into the field.  I went with this guy named Elder Cook and we took a 45 minute bus ride to the area we were going to. By the time we got there the culture shock hit! When you spend 6 weeks straight just inside a nice Americanized building you kinda forget that you are in a 3rd world country. There were houses (shacks made of wood planks and sheet metal) stacked on each other, with wild dogs, cats, and chickens. And everything was super loud, because everyone was blasting music as loud as they could. There are no traffic laws, or at least no one enforces them, and everyone has a motorcycle. We got to our appointment and I gave the opening prayer, shared a scripture, asked her how she felt about it, and bore my testimony. My companion did the rest of the lesson and I had no clue what was going on. But, afterwards I found out the she was an inactive member and apparently she told my comp that that scripture was exactly what she needed at the time. That just made me super excited to get out there and teach these people. I found it humbling to look at these people who literally had nothing, but to see them as children of God. And to see the potential they have in not just this life but in the next one too.

On Sunday I was called to give my 3rd talk in a row. It was in Spanish, but the first thing I did when I got up there was in English and I said, "maybe it was president or maybe the Holy Ghost, but somebody has a sense of humor." It went well but right afterwards Elder Jackson and I sang a duet of '' I'll go were you want me to go". It went super well; we litterly made the girls cry and even my companion (don't tell him I said that). I also had a really great lesson on patience that day.

There has been a lot of pranking going on here this week. We didn't start it but you have my word that we are gonna finish it. So they have been trying to hide alarm clocks in our room so they go off in the middle of the night, but we're not that stupid so we would always find them first and hide them in their room. One of the alarm clocks is stuck between their cabinets and their wall and its set to go off at 2:20 every day. We also got one of the kids’ inflatable dinosaur, Elder Rex, and hung him from the ceiling with a note that read, "Good Bye Cruel World" and they are kinda mad about that because that was their district’s mascot. This is all in good fun and nobody is going too far so its super fun. 

Today to celebrate Elder Jackson's birthday we all set up mini golf courses in our room and we are going to use some of the balls and putts that one guy brought to play mini golf. It's going to be super fun so expect pictures next week.

Today was my last time going to the temple for a while. I've really have grown to love the temple and to truly know the importance of the work done there. I always learn something new every time I go and I never want to leave when I get there. But I am excited to serve these people starting Monday.

 Scripture covers for me

 Scripture covers for Dylan

Hey, I love you. Tell everyone I said hi, and if you have time can u send me the vid of my party with me and the duck? The kids here don’t believe how great it was.

Hey I don’t know how to check how much is own my card so if you can find that out before next week that would be amazing. And my camera is being dumb, so sorry for no pictures. I set the Christmas tree up and it looks super great, so thanks again. We leave on Monday so I might email again then or maybe not at all. I love you and I hope everyone is doing well.

Dylan: Still DL

Zdast-vooye-te Friends and Family!

 This week has been just great! Nothing really exciting happened, but I just find myself just loving the 2 3-hour classes a day here and I don't want to stop. I just love my teachers. We watched the broadcast of the the First Presidency Broadcast (which was amazing) and when we exited the building the first snowfall happened since I've been at the MTC! 

So in church I said my first sacrament prayer in Russian, which was fun especially since I didn't have a chance to look at it before, hahaha. And then they assigned me to be district leader again which I was not expecting. But I love my district and I am learning so much. I have almost reached my halfway mark at the MTC so that is really exciting!

I love you all and I know God loves you individually and has a plan for you, And that Jesus atoned for you individually and knows you personally! 

Love, 

Elder VanBuskirk

Hey mom,

WOW Nathan! I love him so much! That makes me happy to hear he is doing better! Wow what a crazy week but I wouldn't expect anything less, haha.  I wish I could hear Nathan's homecoming talk! Thank you so much for the package. It is awesome! I love it! I'll make sure not to open up the gifts until Christmas! We have so much junk food in our room we are going to have a crazy Christmas party haha. I love you mom! Not much has happened this week, but I'm still district leader. They've been changing it every week, which I thought they would so that way everyone in our district would have the chance to do it, but they suprisingly are having me do it for at least another week!

Love,

Elder VanBuskirk

Derek: Obedecer

Captain’s log week 4:Obedecer

Behold, now I say unto you that he commandeth you to repent; and except ye repent, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. But behold, this is not all—he has commanded you to repent, or he will utterly destroy you from off the face of the earth; yea, he will visit you in his anger, and in his fierce anger he will not turn away. (Alma 9:12)

Ok, so last week the first thing I did was have Wendy’s. Since it was just a few of us for the day, the President got us some hook ups. The food here is good, but its the same thing every time so its getting super boring; but at least I’m not starving (yet) so that’s good. We are all having a super great time here and the new kids just showed up too. They are super cool and great kids, but we mess with them a lot and its super funny. Ok, so to explain the scripture, the first few days the new guys were here, I would read a bunch of repentance scriptures to them in this loud booming voice. It was kinda my thing. Anyway we found a ton of ways to prank them. We made up a whole bunch of new "traditions", such as doing a follow-the-leader up all four flights of stairs after every lunch, where we would make them do the dumbest things. But wait, that’s not all. We also do breathing exercises every night where we all hold hand and take deep breaths. Then we do something super funny like make them all do different animal noises or make them say one thing they like about each other. They fell for it super hard and now we are assigning them to lead the line and the breathing exercises every night.

We also got a bunch of cool Haitians and they are super nice. Only one of them can speak English but they taught us how to say “I love you with all my heart”. They are super cool. My language is getting better. Now in our practice lessons I’m now doing half of the lesson instead of my companion doing most of it because my Spanish sucked. We just committed our fake investigator to baptism. We also went to the university again and we handed out twice as many copies of the Book of Mormon. I am so excited for this Friday because we get to do exchanges and go out with the real missioners and teach real lessons. 

On Sunday night we went to the park as the whole MTC and watched this free Nativity play that some church put on. It was the first time the MTC went and it was pretty cool. We even brought candy canes and gave them out. Also today after the temple we were about to go to lunch but I had the impression to go to the church distribution center right there. When we went inside I started talking to these senior missionaries. I found out they worked in my mission then the saw my name tag and was like “hey that looks familiar.”  Then they said it was because the had a package with my name on it in their car. That was a true tender mercy because you usually don’t get packages in the MTC so they were going to wait until I got out. 

I am gaining my testimony more and more everyday as I search the scriptures and pray. I feel myself growing in charity as I pray to see others for who they are, begotten sons and daughters of God. I can’t wait to get out of here and serve the people of this beautiful country and to prepare them for the coming of Christ. I have a testimony that this work is important and may be the most important thing in my life. I am trying to find was to serve for the Church’s #Lighttheworld and its kinda hard to do it in here but I always find a way. I challenge you all to go to mormon.org and be a part of the “light the world: serve in 25 ways in 25 days.” Service is super important and is it great way to celebrate Christ's birth. I know that as you serve others this holiday season we will true find yourself to be more happy and blessed.

My comp and I got matching Ties, and he is super excited about that.

And I ran into Elder Young a week ago

My packge

I gotta go I love you guys so much love you. And thanks for the package!

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