Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them;
and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. Jeremiah 16:16

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Dylan:“How’s Russia doing in the Olympics?”






Hello family and friends, 


So we dropped of our Russian companion at the mission home on Monday. So now it's just me and my other companion, who has been here for maybe 9 months. So we are both young and we are stoked to kill it this transfer! We had a super busy week that pretty much just consists of missionary work in Russia. We met our record of lessons this week, which was really exciting and had a lot of different successes. 

We have 2 new investigators! Which is crazy because the amount of times I taught the first lesson since I got here was 1 time. One of our investigator is one of our long time investigator,who won't commit, mother from Ukraine, and she pretty much only speaks Ukrainian. She will only be here for about a month are so we are really trying to work with her. The other investigator is this 30 year old man who the missionaries stopped talking too for some reason when the law changed. He is a really loud fun guy, and we started over with him and he is ready for round 2. 

We got someone to commit to baptism!  He is this older Russian man who is super Russian! He got in a car accident or hit by a train or something and has one blind eye, a bunch of cool looking scars all over his face and body and he has a really bad leg. Every time after our lesson we catch him standing out the balcony of the apartment hallway smoking, so we yell at him to throw it down and he just kind of growls at us. It's so funny. This time when he opened up the door to his apartment hall he was smoking already. We had a quick lesson and asked him to be baptized on this date. We pretty much tried convincing him for 20 minutes and he finally broke, it was so funny. He knows the church is true and knows he should get baptized but he won't quit smoking even though he says he wants to, he won’t actually stop. Apparently he's come close to baptism a few times, so we will see if this is the one.

The mission President and his wife checked our apartment this week and we passed with flying colors, so shout out to you, mom ;) 

We have a ton of in-actives and luckily we have an awesome tiny branch, so we are going to really push on everyone to do home teaching this transfer because we need help finding these people. And the members always ask the mission President when will they build a temple in Russia and he always reply's with when you do your home teaching, it's so savage and funny, but true.


We are ready for another busy week ahead of us. Love you all!

Elder VanBuskirk



“We enjoyed being in the Severny Branch with Elders Sweeney and VanBuskirk!! These elders have a clean, tidy apartment.” – Sis. Miner



Sweeney will hit his year point in like 2 transfers. He is from Pennsylvania, went to a year of BYU, and is in the theater program there. He wants to be an actor; super fun and cool guy.



 I am serving in a small branch called Severny, I think. we are in the Nothern part of Rostov, and it's awesome!























Derek:Captain's Log Week 16: La cuarta vez es el encanto


"God made you special, and He loves you very much" (VegiTales)

Ok so, I know that's not a scripture, but it’s true. So this week was weird because we didn't do much, but a lot happend. My comp spent the whole week sick so we stayed inside some days, but he toughed it out to do some things that needed to get done. We had a baptism on Saturday, and I got to physically baptize her. I found her a few weeks ago when a friend invited her to church. My comp was out on exchanges for that and the first lesson we had with her. Her name is Elianny and she went to our last baptism and at the first lesson she told us she wanted to be baptized. She is so cool, because she is one of those investigators that will highlight what she reads in the Book of Mormon  even if we didn’t ask. So the baptism was great. We had no water so we had to pay a truck to come and fill the font up and it was super low and cold. So I was super nervous, but I didn’t mess up. She did. I had to do it 4 times because her feet kept coming out of the water. After the 3rd time she just looked so done. Not mad, just done. So that went well.

So other things that happened this week: we got two new fechas and moved all of them to the 17th of March. So the weekend we had planned was the last week of our transfer, and stake conference. So we have to move it to the next week which sucks because we got 6 good fechas for that day and my comp won’t be there. Also as of right now I am super sick. And I’m pretty sure I saw a shrunken head. We were just walking by the freeway during exchanges and one of the elders just sees a shrunken head tied to a tree by a red string. It was super gross. Every one was to afraid to look closer, except me. So I’m like 75% sure it was real. And 100% regret not keeping it. Welcome to the DR.

Yeah so not else much happed.



Zone conference last week




Hey mom. I’m on and I’m sick. I’ve got the double dragon.

I need you opinion. I’m downloading music to play. Do you think Star Wars songs, and songs from musicals I’ve seen, would be mission appropriate?
ok sweet. love u
And I physically baptized someone!  I had to do it 4 times
Oh, and Elder Vigil called me for info about BYU Hawaii; he said he is considering it, which would be great, so I may have found my roommate.
Plus, he would make a great wing man.
I don’t live in a touristy place, so I have no clue what to get you and dad.

Hey I gotta go. Love you all!



Monday, February 19, 2018

Derek: Captin's Log Week 15: intercambio

ok, i’m going to make this quick because i was halfway done writing this email and it just got deleted. and it won’t let me use capitals.

so as of now i have been on 8 exchanges. that’s one for every week i have in the field. and that’s not good because i’m not supposed to go exchanges unless its with the district leader. and i like to serve in my area. i also think my comp wants to just get rid of me. for example, i am currently on a trio right now and i’ve been on exchanges since early friday morning until this tuesday afternoon so my comp can go watch a soccer game with the zone leaders. that’s 4 days. and he doesn't even know who is playing in the game. i already had plans for p-day but he completely threw that out the window. i guess i’ll just use the advice he always gives me every time i beg to go contacting," just wait 4 more weeks".

ok, sorry for venting there. well 3 of the baptisms we had for this week backed out. one says she has classes every saturday and sunday for a little while, but its been a month and she has no clue when it ends, so my comp thinks she is lying. her friend refuses to get baptized or even go to church if her friend dosen’t go. and her mom just doesn’t go to church. but we should still have 2 baptisms this saturday. we have 3 more for the 10th of march. i feel really good about as well as some new ones that may work out later as well. but as for this 3 its pretty much whenever they get their act together. this is our second time moving their date.

other things that happened this week: i learned braille, learned how to solve a rubik’s cube, had my first real bucket shower, contacted for my 2nd time ever, showed off my zipper tie, and finished alma in my spanish book of mormon.

sorry for just venting the whole time, i just dont really have an outlet. but don't worry i’m actually pretty tranquilo.

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I havebeen called of him to declare his word among his people, that theymight have everlasting life. (2 Nephi 5: 13)

no pics this week. i’m in a third world country, sorry.


dang, my younger bros are studs. i love your pics mom, congrats.

Dylan: Horrible and Sacrilegious




проĐČДт,

So today has been a wild day because we had to drop off my Russian companion and we were helping a babushka all morning so it is currently 8pm over here. 




Destroying all church materials: This week we had the task of getting rid of every church book in the church building. We feel horrible and sacrilegious, honestly, as we have to get every book, and pamphlet, and handout, and tear off their covers and pages and in pieces. We have to destroy everything except we can keep Liahonas within 2 months, and the Book of Mormons, and missionary lesson pamphlets as long as they all have a certain stamp and are signed. But we basically emptied out the church and had to throw it all away and make it so it is destroyed so nobody can use it and we don't get caught and have to pay the fine. It's really, really heartbreaking, and the members were really distraught when the news was given to them about family history. 

We also lost the keys to the church and our apartment this week, so it's somewhere in the snow we think on the other side of area where we lost it. That night we had to go all the way to Center to our landlord to get the keys and didn't get back until very late; I will not state how late it was.

Infested: The living conditions for a lot of Russians is so sad, we helped clear out a I.A. woman and her daughter's one-room apartment so a member can spray it all down with bug spray, and you could just see 100s of cockroaches coming out of the walls, ceilings, and furniture. 

We went ice skating and I can witness that Russians have to be the best ice skaters there are anywhere, I saw tons of little kids 6 or younger doing flawless jumps and spins and so fourth. There were Russian children ice skating before they could walk. 



I have a lot more I want to say but I am out of time. I love you all. 

Elder VanBuskirk

Go Caleb, such a stud!

Wow I remembered when I played at the date festival. Go Luke! Caleb with the weak silver... Gold’s not to bad Luke. Good job bros.

WOWWWW! THAT’S AWESOME MOM! CONGRATS!!!! 2 FIRST PLACES! I LOVE that Christ painting.  I’m so glad it won! I can't believe Caleb's face got first and my flip got HM haha, still awesome, I love your entries





































Monday, February 12, 2018

Derek: Captain's Log Week 13: 'Vaina'


 28 Wherefore, labor ye, labor ye in my vineyard for the last time-for the last time call      upon the inhabitants of the earth.
(D&C 43: 28)

I was going to start this by venting on how much I hate Spanish. But the thing is I realized that they don't even speak Spanish here, they just speak Dominican. Ready? This is how you speak Dominican. Step 1: Speak normal Spanish. Step 2: Take out evey ‘S’ you should say. Step 3: Make up words as you go along. Step 4: Talk really fast so people don't know that you don't know Spanish. Step 5: Throw grammar out the window, it's too overrated anyway. There, you are now fluent in Spanish and Dominican. For example, instead of saying the word "cosa" which means "thing" , in spanish, a Dominican would say "vaina" which literally means a "sheath", like for swords. Or they have this phrase here "Tamo heavy" which is supposed to mean "We are cool". But it's not Spanish; it's half bad Spanish and half English. I have this fear that I'm going to go home and not be able to communicate with any real Spanish speaker.

Ok that's enough venting. So back to the good stuff. This week I had my first Zone Confrence. We talked about the importance of repentance and about how agency is one of the most misunderstood and wrongly-taught principles in the gospel. So I’m trying to spend a good part of my personal study time each day studying it. It got me even more excited to serve. I also spent some time this week buying things to send home in my first package. And I finally got to met Dorisbell!!!! She is a progressing investigator that has been out of town for the last 8 weeks!!! We talked with her and gave her a fecha for the 10th of March. I really love my investigators they are all super cool but the definitely need to go to church more. One of our biggest problems with one of our investigators right now is that she said that she will only go to church if her friend does and will only be baptized if her friend does. So we are going to help her realize that she needs her own testimony. But she doesn’t read or pray or even go to church so its really hard for her to gain her OWN testimony if she isn't willing to put in her own work.

Today, to celebrate one of the elder’s birthday, we went to the batting cages. It was super fun and super cheap. I totally killed it and caught one of the balls that was launched at me single handed. But what was super funny was that 4 of the kids that were going to come were super late because they had a riot right outside of their house: police, burning tires, broken glass, and all. The cops shot a mustard gas grenade at the apartment right below the elders’ and they got a little tear-gassed from it. They even said that a women ran out of the building with a infant having a seizure. 

Anyways the mission is great, the church is true, and that’s it.





The b-day boy hitting a few balls.

 Elder VanBuskirk




Hi Mom. 

So this week I learned Braille and how to solve a Rubic’s cube, I was wondering if you can send me a book on how to do origami when you have a chance. I can’t find any here. Also a pocket US constitution. 


I gotta go right now. Love you

Dylan: Miracles, Bungalows, and Sad Stuff



Dear Fellow Americans (and Johan), 

This week has been insane: some really sad news, crazy miracles, and interesting and fun experiences. 

First the really sad news: So Russia is shutting down the FamilySearch in all of Russia. We have to destroy any FamilySearch computer, and any pamphlet or book or anything that has the logo on it. We also have to destroy and shred a lot of other Liahonas and books and other pamphlets and so fourth. They really want to make sure we don't have anything to hand out to people. The government making FamilySearch unaccessible is more hard on the members than on us; they now will have no way to do genealogy work for the temple, and it will take away one of their inspiring desires to go to the temple, which is already a very challenging task for them. Nevertheless, it is amazing to see that whatever the adversary may do and whatever forces and power it has, it will never stop the work of the Lord. His work will always press forward and He will never abandon these saints in Russia.











SPLITS: I went on splits these week 2 diferent days in 2 different areas. So one of the zone leaders and I went to mid-center town and brought groceries to this poor old woman (who is not all the way there). She lives in a little tiny bungalow or hut that is like handmade and probably a century old. It's the size of a small room and has one moldy toilet with and stove on top and a small moldy fridge. Her house is the most disgusting place I have ever seen; the place is practically rotting, and the stench was so bad it smelt like the was a farm herd of dead cows in there. This woman had a ton of cats and kittens running around. She also had a stroke awhile ago and is physically not able to get out of her house, so she spends her whole life in there which is just heartbreaking. When we took out her trash we noticed there was a tail sticking out. Under her diapers there was a DEAD CAT that has been in her trash bag for over a week!










We went to another bungalow, where this older gentleman has 16 cats. He has one light dwindling lightbulb and no source of heat besides his oven that is heated by firewood. His house is freezing cold, so he crouches down next to the oven for heat. He wants to get baptized but won't commit to paying tithing because he barely has enough to survive as it is. It is really sad to see. 



Fun stuff: We played football (soccer) Saturday morning with some members and a bunch of random kids kept showing up and playing with us. It was just awesome to realize that I was in Russia in the mist and cold, playing in the mud in a sketchy park surrounded by the tall gray buildings. 










We also went to a RUSSIAN BALLET which was actually way cool! It was a classic one and it was amazing! Another thing I found which was sooo weird, is that when Russians applaud they all clap on the same beat, the whole audience! Which sounded so weird cause they have no way of expressing how enthusiastic they are, it's just one rhythm and expression. Their culture is super interesting and like complete opposites of the US. 

Here is a crazy story, kind of long though, but the details are important:
Soooo last Friday on the way home from game night in Center I was having a quiet conversation with Sweeney about what we can do to help our investigators as we were speaking in English/Russian and there was this young woman who came in the marshrootka later and was sitting right across from me. Elder Sweeney and I were sitting by the driver and the marshrootka was really full so a lot of people couldn't reach to him, so they would hand me the money and I would hand it the driver. Anyways, she kept looking at us, so when I was finally about to say something it was her stop. Then instead of her just handing the money to the driver, which would have been just as easy for because of where she was, she handed it to me and told me in English to please pass it up to the driver. I got so excited and tried to say a few things back, and when the driver handed back the money to me to give to her I dropped all the change. In a hurry I tried to pick it up for her and was only able to give her some of it before she had to run off. So I got the change and put in my bag hoping I would see her again. I knew right away that I messed up and God gave me a person to talk to that I didn't even try talking to until it was too late and I knew I messed up, so I prayed all week that if God would give me a second chance I would take the opportunity. And what do you know? Exactly a week later, not even in our part of town, in the huge city of Rostov, out of ALL the marshrootkas and buses we get into a marshrootka after a rather dissapointing day to go to our apartment and I'm standing there and I notice that the same girl with 2 friends is sitting right behind Elder Sweeney in the back! I couldn't believe my eyes I had to examine that it was her because it was so unreal. I got my way to the end of the Marshrootka and as soon as I opened my mouth she laughed and said that she was the same person, and I handed her her change that I had ready to give that whole week, which she and her friends were so surprised that I held it for her thinking I would see her again, and it got us on to a good start and we all had a great conversation. If anything else comes out of that or not, It is just awesome to see first hand how the Lord really does answer prayers and how even if you mess up the Lord is patient with us and gives us many chances. We just have to seek for them.


Elder VanBuskirk