Dylan: An Amazing Mission

Матушка Россия

Dear family and friends,

Well I have finally entered the Motherland! Our plane ride to Russia was quite the experience, I was sitting next to a very Jewish man from Israel who only spoke Hebrew, but I tried to have a decent conversation with him by pointing at my bible maps and using his translator. But there was a Babushka sitting by my companion so we talked to her for practically the whole flight from NY to Moscow and we were able to bring the discussion over to the gospel, and we tried giving her a BOM. She was interested but wouldn't take it, but I might've slipped a little mormon.org card with a note in her bag. At Moscow we drove through the city to the American embassy; it was quite the experiance. It was so cold and windy and I didn't have a coat yet, but I was so excited it didn't matter. Russia is even cooler than I imagined, all the buildings are so tall and gray, and everyone drives so crazy (like our bus just started drifting today and nobody was phased) and everything is so dirty and depressing, and so cold and humid that it pierces your clothes, and the winds are insane!

We got to Rostov and met our mission President and his wife. I love them. They are great! The next day I met my trainers, I have 2 trainers. One has been here for less than a year and is from Pennsylvania. He's awesome. His name is Elder Sweeney! My other trainer is a Russian! He is the coolest person ever and he is super friendly and fun. He is 25 and he is also engaged, haha. His fiancee is also on a mission and he baptized her. Missionaries met his mom on the streets when he was 2 years old. This is his last transfer but I'm so lucky to have him. I love both of my companions so much!

I am seving in East Rostov, the city is really big. Our apartment is on the top floor of a typical Russian apartment building. We are on a hill and have an awesome view of the city. People light fireworks ALL the time, and it's always the loud ones, so we always have a show. The best part though is that all the cars have alarms, and they all get set off at the same time, it's so funny. There are also a ton of stray cats and dogs all over the place. And the dogs bark all night. We walk or do public transportation. We usually take the thing called a Marshrootka, which is like a  super ghetto van that is stuffed with people to the max, and they drive crazy. It's really fun. It's so true that nobody smiles are talks, unless they are asking for a cigarette or change, but I still always say hi to everyone and try to say a little convo or phrase in Russian. It smells like sewer and is really muddy. Nobody takes care of anything, and the water tastes like dirt here. And in case your wondering, people do wear the fur hats here and all the babushkas practically wear a bear. The winter is finally starting up in Rostov; there was few days with good snow, but it's really starting to pick up today. 

The members here are amazing! Our little branch has a little over 20 active members. They are all converts, and they are all so faithful. The branch president and his councilor both have 2 little children. I've found that Russian children are the cutest there is, the woman are beautiful, and the men are tough and scary looking. On Sunday I gave my first talk and introduced myself to the ward. My trainors already built up a good trust with the ward, so that's helpful. We also had 7 investigators at church so that was awesome! We have 6 investigators with baptismal date! We are currently teaching an amazing single mom with 4 children who are all over 8, they are the golden investigator family who always goes to church. They are all planning to get baptized. This is quite a miracle because baptisms are first quite rare in Russia as you can imagine, and when somebody gets baptized, they are usually the only one in their family. So the fact that there is a whole family is miraculous. Our other investigator is a older man. He was suppose to get baptized this Saturday but he hasn't gone to church since my trainers have been here so we are pushing it back. He is amazing though, he is the most loving man. He has been talking to the missionaries for a while but his wife wouldn't let him get baptized and thinks he is foolish. His wife died a month ago and after that he threw his BOM out and was done, but something happened very recently where he came back to the missionaries and now wants to be baptized. We have another investigator who is an English teacher, so we talk quite a lot, but he tries to question everything. But he always shows up to church, but we are working with him, I love him and I know that he knows these things are true but he won't come to it. I think he is afraid. We actually had 15 lessons this past week which is the most my trainers have ever had, we usually only get 8-10, so we never had any time to do any finding yet, besides starting up conversations on the bus. It's really hard to find here. No one really knows what to do since you can't just talk to people about the church, so we have to be creative and invite people to play ping pong with us at the church or so fourth, I'm still not so sure but I can promise you we will come up with some ways how to do it, because with God's help we will find the people he has prepared and bring them home. 

This is an amazing mission. I love it here. It is quite an adventure. You can see the difference of happiness between the people with the gospel and without. I love the people; they are so great. (they have found all of the 12 tribes just in all mission alone, it's crazy!) God's work will press forward no matter the obstacle, it is truly amazing to see it here in its full work and glory. God doesn't abandon any of his children.

старейшина ВанБускирк

Derek: Captain's Log week 10: Estandarte de la Libertad

19 And when Moroni had said these words, he went forth among the people, waving the rent part of his garment in the air, that all might see the writing which he had written upon the rent part, and crying with a loud voice, saying:

20 Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them. (Alma 46: 19-20)

So, I have literally just finished paintballing and I haven’t been home yet, so I am a hot, sweaty, mess. I'll get into that but first let’s talk about the work. So we got one new fecha for our noche blanco next Saturday. It's a friend of one of our investigators that went to church last week. She kept asking us questions like, “So, what do I need to wear on the 27th?”, before we even committed her to baptism. We now have 8 fechas for next week. I feel confident that they will all be baptized next week, but my comp says that most likely 5 for sure. But I guess the worst cases scenario is that we move some back a week or two.  But I think if we do our part, it should work out. These numbers are not average or anything here. My comp only has 10 baptisms and he has been out for 17 months.

 So we are getting some good work done which is surprising because my comp doesn’t schedule anything until after 4 o'clock. Or we would go to a member’s house to eat and teach a lesson but instead he would just play pool for 4 hours. Then when I was like “hey are we gonna teach the lesson?” he said “sure, if you want to get it started”, and then started another game of pool. It's stuff like that. Or, since we have a big area, flipping huge, he will refuse to meet with referrals that are outside of walking distance. It's stuff like that.  But what bothers me the most is that with me he is doing so well and, though I’m trying my hardest, I don't speak Spanish. Wich means he is doing most of the teaching and why we have success. So, I know that if he applied himself even more he could do really great things in his last 6 months. So my goal is to show him the potential that he has if he applied himself more while we are together, and hope he keeps that fire even after he leaves my area. 

Ok, now to paint ball. So it was my whole district and the APs and the mission president was there to. So apparently when we asked the president if we could do it he had no clue what it was. So the AP Elder Wolf, (he and I are tight, we even took a road trip together on my first day in the field) talked him into it. The president even called the area authorities and they said no, but if he was there maybe. 

Anyways, it was super fun. We played some regular death match for a bit, then we played some capture the flag. So, earlier I made this super cool Title of Liberty which we  used as the flag. We played two games with it and I was the one to get the flag both times. Because everyone else was too chicken to just make a run for it. Then we played a tournament of comps verses comps. My comp and I destroyed every other team. Then in the last game there was some problems of deciding if my comp got hit first or if one of the guys on the other team did. So we decided to settle it with a one on one game. It was me verses Elder Clarkson, (I went on exchanges with him but not much happened,) and I completely destroyed him. Yeah, I pretty much single-handedly won the capture the flag games and the comp tournament, but no biggie.

The ward also planned a Temple trip the same day as the noche blanco in the morning which is good because we are going to take our investigators to the temple and teach them about it then take them straight to the church building for the noche blanco.

I was also asked to give a talk next week so we'll see how that goes.  I also have mission interviews and a 4 week training meeting this week.

Sorry, I don’t have the cord for my camera so no pics.

Dylan: Safe in Russia

Dear Parents, 

We are thrilled to let you know that your sons are here safe in the mission home!! They seem happy and alert for how long they have been traveling. They will stay here tonight with us and their trainers will come in the morning to meet them for orientation. We will take more pictures tomorrow and I will put those in our mission newsletter. Their preparation day will be on Monday so that is when they will  write you. They can forward the mission newsletter to you on Monday. 

Thank you for raising such outstanding sons!! We can tell they will do well in this mission. All of our children served foreign missions so we have been on the parent side many times. We will love them and watch over them while they are here. 

With love, 

Sister Miner  

Derek: Captain's Log Week 9: Fecha

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring topass the immortality and eternal life of man.(Moses 1:39)

So, this week was a really good missionary week. So as of today I've been on my mission for 2 MONTHS. And that feels like a long time, but then I remember I have to do what I've already done 11 more times. Anyways, this week we committed 5 people to baptism. That gives us 7 all together, and we plan to ask one more tomorrow. This means that we should have, hopefully, 8 baptisms at our noche blanca on the 27th. And these investigators were not even being taught until I got there. They are all super cool. We have; 2 sisters who are getting baptized for sure, a mother and a daughter who are really into it and the daughter bought a friend to church, and 3 friends one is a friend of a convert, another is a brother of the same convert and the other is a sister of a different convert. Yesterday we had 12 investigators come to church, which is apparently super crazy. And two of those are new investigators. We also spend a lot of time working with inactives.

The language is coming slow but surely. I am doing my best to study and read the Book of Mormon out loud. I am understanding a lot but I can't talk very much. But it's gonna get there. Today we got to go to this botanical garden in the capital. It was super cool, and I got to wear my crocs. Anyways, I was real cool and I took a lot of pics but my camera is super dumb and I haven't been able to upload anything since I’ve been here. But I just got it working so I’ll show some new pics then some old ones. And next week for P-day our whole district and the AP's and the president are going paintballing. So I'm super excited for that.

So my companion and I all getting along a lot better but we both still have some differences. We are being honest with each other and it's really helping. We are both helping each other with our weaknesses. He is helping me with my Spanish and trying to figure out the mission, and I am helping us become more obedient and helping us have a better work ethic.

So I found a cocoa fruit the other day and kept it and decided to try to make homemade chocolate out of it. It seems complicated and I can’t find a good receipe so this may be a long process. And apparently all the other elders brought Hawaiian shirts except for me, so I really need to go shopping. We also ate at this member’s house and it was super funny because, they have a daughter who has won a few beauty pageants and so they did the thing any average person would do: they put a larger than life-sized portrait of her on the wall. I’m talking BIG. Ceiling to floor and just as long sideways. And its super hard not to stare because its super werid, but I don't think my comp minds. We also made a deal with a member where we give them some money and they feed us lunch every day. It's good homemade food and cheaper then anything else we would eat, so I'm excited. We start that tomorrow. 

Anyways the work is great, the church is true, and God loves you.

Dylan: New Years at the MTC

Dear friends and family, 

The time has finally come. I leave Sunday evening to Russia! Just my companion and I. We first head to New York than to Moscow, where we will solve legal issues, than head over to Rostov by Wednesday evening, and then we’ll be shipped off to our area the next morning. 

This has been my favorite week so far because I have grasped a small taste of how wonderful and merciful the Atonement of Jesus Christ is. And I have gained a small knowledge of just how great Heavenly Father loves me personally and the people of Russia personally and you personally. He is our literal Father of our spirits. He loves us so much he sent his only Begotten Son so that we may be saved from our sins. The Atonement is very real, it is a real force. I love the Savior with all my heart and will try my best to follow him and become like him. And I hope that you will always strive to keep working to grow closer to him and become like him.

For New Years, Brad Wilcox spoke to us and Lexi Walker sang throughout the devotional. She is only 15 and has the most talented voice I have ever heard. They don't do anything for New Years in the MTC, we just get to work. On New Years Eve though I left my room to brush my teeth and say my prayer and my companion happened to shut the door all the way, which you can't open from the outside without a key. By the time I tried getting back in my room they were all asleep, and I mean ASLEEP! I tried knocking on the door but they were all out, I even tried breaking up through the roof and throwing my flashlight though the vent to try to wake them up haha. Luckily way down my hall the Armenians were packing to leave so I was able to sleep in their room. In the morning my roommates didn't realize I was gone the whole night and just assumed I was starting my New Years off bright and early. There was quite a bit more that happened, but it was a very interesting memorable New Years Eve. 

I am so excited to get out in the field! This is the Lord's work and he has a mighty and special plan for the people of Russia, and I am excited to see the prophecies fulfilled there.

Love, Elder VanBuskirk

Hello family, 

I love all so much! The MTC has been a wonderful experience I have learned so much here and more importantly grow closer to the savior and the power of His love and His Atonement. The spirit is very strong here and I will miss the devotionals and really everything about the MTC. I am one of few missionaries to have the opportunity to be here for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I don't have much time to email but I wanted to let each of you know how much I love you and how greatly Christ and our Heavenly Mother and Father loves you. Thank you for all that you have done for me and taught me throughout my life. I am beyond excited to get out there! Our mission President is just awesome! He's been keeping in contact with us so he can get to know us more so that he can pick a fit companion for us. He is very well organized and knows what he is doing, I'll be in good hands. So in one our sunday meetings Sister Clark, our Branch President's wife, was talking about how when President Hinkley visited the People of Russia he told them that the time will come when the work will practically come to a stop, but then the doors will swing open in Russia and it will be a miraculous time for the work. I am so excited to be part of that prophecy and I am excited to see what the Lord has in mind for his people over there. They have found all the tribes in Eastern Europe, and I am excited to help gather it. They have told us that we are going in the front line of the battle for the Lord's work, I know it will be hard, but I am excited to meet the challenge. 

Please send me Alex, Grandma and Grandpa Wilbur's email too, and any other family members.

Love, Elder Vanbuskirk

\

Derek:Captin's Log Week 8: Nunca Triste Siempre Feliz

I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.(Alma 29:9)

So, because of one reson or another, I wasn’t able to email for 3 weeks. Anyways, I have now spent 2 full weeks in the field. I am serving in an area called Villa Altagracia. We are in one of the most northern areas of the mission. It is super pretty here and we are in the beautiful green mountains. It’s not too humid or hot here and it rains a lot. The members are great and always feed us and give referrals. Everyone calls this area the promised land they say that its all down here from here. It's also one of the biggest areas in the mission with a freeway right in the middle of it that we need to cross. My companion is the redhead devil named Elder Chapman. He is from Arizona and he is a great missionary from 3:30 to 9:30 (after he takes his naps), Which I just use as extended language study because I definitely need it.  And he doesn't ever contact. He says that if I want to contact I’ll have to do it myself. But I don’t know Spanish. But he'll see, I’m just going to keep sucking at it until he decides to help. He only has 7 months left and I just found out that he is 24 years old. And the fire isn’t there anymore. But don’t worry. That’s not gonna put me down. But other than that, he is pretty cool and easy to get along with.

OK, now time for the good part the work. I commited these 2 sisters to baptism last week. They are 14 and 15 and live with their grandma. I have been with them for all the lessons and they are truly the elect. They love and read everything we give them. They where supposed to be baptized net week but move it back to the 27th because the whole district is gonna try to get baptisms on the same day. My goal is to have 5 baptism from our area and we have some really close but a big problem is that a bunch of couples that we are teaching live to together but aren’t married and they can’t get baptized until they do. And marriage is super expensive here. Well not really, but no one has money.

It is super sad to see the living conditions here. No one has money and they are not good with the money they have. They always spend it on nice clothes or drugs and alcohol. Our neighbours are the perfect example, they have no electricity, water, or anything and the always ask us for stuff. Which is chill, but then every night the get dressed in their really nice clothes and party and get drunk all night long. But anyways, at least they are super nice, except the tigres, or gangsters. They all are also really good at playing dominos here. That’s pretty much how I spent my whole free time for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. I’ve gotten pretty good at playing against other missionaries but I get my butt handed to me when I play against the old guys in the streets. I have also already gotten super sick, I’ve gotten what they call the "Double Dragon". I had to stop 6 times between the mission-wide Christmas party and my house because of diarrhea or throw-up. It sucked.

We are so blessed because the ward made it a goal to each give us a referral before the end of march. Right now we are teaching 2 different families that just need to get married, a recent contacts younger brother, a mother and daughter, the two sisters and more. But those are the ones that are moving the most along. There are also 2 more that I haven’t met yet because they are out of town, but I heard that they are moving along well. My Spanish sucks, of course, but I am understanding a ton of what's been said and I can bear my testimony and prayer in Spanish. My reading has been getting better; I just finished the Book of Jacob in Spanish out loud. And my reading is better than most people here. And that’s not a boast, the people here are just super uneducated. 

I am having a blast and am learning and teaching a lot. I know the importance of my job here and I am doing everything in my power to do the will of the Lord and become the most hardworking and obedient missionary that I can be. And even though a lot of these other missionaries say that I’ll lose my fire and I’ll end up sleeping in and tacking naps, but I know I won’t. This work is too important. But don't worry I still am still trying to have fun at the same time. Hope you all have an amazing new year.