Derek: Captain's Log Week 26: Larimar

"Tomorrow marks 6 months on my mission, which is insane because I feel like I just got here. It's been a crazy week, so I will be quick." (Elder Dylan VanBuskirk) 

Thanks Dylan. Couldn't have said it any better myself. But it’s been a good kind of crazy. So this Saturday we had 3 baptisms. They will be really strong members. We had new newly married couple, Santiago and Danny, (I baptized Danny) and Laurda. They are all really good and strong believers. They are what we call here Larimar, which is a very rare precious stone that is only found in the DR. That is the kind of investigators these are; super precious and only found here.

We are now working with their family members, and could have anywhere from 6 to 9 baptisms this transfer: consisting of the brother of Laurda, 2 kids and a nephew of Danny and Santiago, and five sisters that we are working with. I am determined to get their mom too, but she will need a bit more time. And you may be thinking, well, most of those are kids.  Well, it's called using partial member families, so leave me alone.

So the president left a goal for our mission to get 200 baptisms this month. Which would be twice as much as last month. He also told me and the other missionaries in our ward if we get 20 baptisms this month we can do it at the beach. 20 is a lot and 1/10 of the goal of the whole mission. So we had 3 this week and the other elders will have 2 net week and so our goal is to get 15 for the 26th and be like, “Hey president, here is your 20 for the month.” but we will see.

Anyway, we had no water in our house this whole week, which sucked. But I can’t wait to Skype hope for Mothers’ Day next week. And I may or may not burn a tie tomorrow.

Picture From left to right: my comp, Santiago, Danny, Laurda, this cool dude from Spain that baptized her(mi tio) and me.

We will have 3 baptism this week and probably 2 next week.

Love you too.  Did you send my package yet?

Do you have Mckee’s Japan tie? Also the tech decks - I was serious about that. And maybe something cool from the bookstore but i cant think of anything. BYUI gear? Eww gross. No.

Thanks, and I can’t think of anything I really need from there, so surprise me.

Sweet, thanks mom. You are the best.

Tell Alex I said “Me madre no puede intender este. Pero tu puedes.”

And did get the pic of my baptism yet? I will probably Skype you at around 5pm on Sunday.

Yeah, Dylan and I have been emailing more lately.

Thanks mom. Anyway, I gotta go. Talk to you Sunday! Love you.

Derek: Captain's Log Week 25: Boda y La Playa

And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" (Matthew 19:5)

Ok, so I just want to say I love it here in my new area. I am in a four person house with my comp, who I love and is a very, very hard worker, and the zone leaders, who are pretty cool and hard workers too. So that’s pretty great. Also, the work here is great. We will have 3 baptisms this week: a husband and a wife, who just got married this week, and this 22 year old girl. The husband and the wife got married this week and we got to go. And afterwards we went to the beach and took pictures, which is super great because you are usually not supposed to go to the beach. But the senior missionaries who live in our zone, the Burups, drove us there. They are so cool, even though their Spanish isn’t that good. But they are the only ones in the whole mission and they work with us a lot. It’s good. 

We also have 2 fechas for the next week. One of them is this investigator that they had before we got here, but she may need more work. And they other is actually my real investigator. We had our first lesson with him on my first day here. He is the 15 year old brother of the 22 year old girl. He is super cool, and he already has 3 of the six lessons and is so ready. He always takes notes on what he reads and ask the best questions. His sister does that to and they are both super good. So he will literally be baptized within 2 and a half weeks from his first lesson and already has a lot of times in  church. All of our investigators are contacts, except people like him or the children of the new couple we will start teaching this week. Its super great here, but super hot. But its probably the same as home so I can't complain.

Can i have a flag,the drivers thing, and one or two Tech decks (one of those tinny skate board things) please.  Did you ever find the baptism pics?

we will have 3 baptism this week and probably 2 next week

gotta go love u

Dylan: Zone Conference with Entertainment

I don't really have time, but it's been a crazy week! We've been going hard on lessons and building a Russian house, and we had our new investigator, Olya, come to church for the first time. She is a sweetheart and she is also like our best friend (and like one of our only progressing investigators haha). We also had our game night round 2, and it went better than last week. We had 8 people there overall, which is like 4 times more than last time! It was pretty funny how it went; pretty much there was a family with 2 small children and a member with a dog, and the whole night the dog was trying to hump the little children... but we can only improve!

Also my favorite part of the week was zone conference! I learned a lot and have a lot to work on but the best part of it was when a man busted open the doors during our mission president’s wife’s presentation and proclaimed , "Attention Brothers and Sisters!!! I am the Messiah!" My companion and I jumped out of our chairs and took him outside the room where he finished his message about how he has saved us and answered our prayers and then he gave us a gift (a little bag with a rock, broken pieces of glass, 3 cigarette butts, a flattened flower, and a note) The craziest part is the guy seemed totally sober. Got to Love Russia.

Oh we also went on a 2 hour train ride to Taganrod on P-day just for the heck of it and had a picnic on the sea. 

pictures:

1. Babushkas hook it up every Sunday! 

2. a cat

3. The great gift

Hahaaha, yeah we might need colored shirts soon, but not yet at least.  Can you send me a frisbee and a football? it's great for finding activities, but I don't have any. You could send me a shirt. Reeses is always good, but I'm not dying for American food or anything. Thanks for the letters. I will read them when I get home.

Derek: Captain's log Week 24: Bola de Pintura Otra Vez

"15 And those who did belong to the church were faithful; yea, all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ, or Christians as they were called, because of their belief in Christ who should come.

16 And therefore, at this time, Moroni prayed that the cause of the Christians, and the freedom of the land might be favored." (Alma 46:15-16)

Ok, so a lot to talk about. Today we did paint ball again, which was obviously super fun. And we did it with the whole zone this time, so there were a lot more people there. But more importantly, we had the baptism this week of Marcil, which was kind of a mess but it worked. It was supposed to start at 6, but by 6pm: the water wasn't filled yet (because our church has no water), we couldn't get the cabinet with the white clothes open, the talks, prayers and song weren’t planned yet, and our brother to be baptized was nowhere to be found. But we ended up having a nice baptism at 6:45.

 We also got transfers this week. I will be leaving Villa Altagracia to Los Coloines in Azual. I’m actually super excited. But everyone says that Azual is the hottest zone in the mission and I will literally be getting there right in the beginning of summer and probably not leave until summer is over. I’m also getting another Latino comp from Honduras. I like Villa a lot, but I’m ready to leave too. But its ok because we planted a lot of seeds here this transfer. And I think my comp is really going to miss me, but don't tell him I said that.

Mom: Is there anything you want me to send you?

Derek: Yes, send me an American flag.

Mom: HAHAHA oh, NOW you want an American flag? What about the one you left in the theater London and were too chicken to go back and get it? How about that flag? Oh yeah, now it’s probably in a land-fill. No loyalty. 

Derek: I don’t want to talk about it.

Mom: I know. The shame is real. Plus if anyone ever found out it could ruin your run for the White House.

Derek: Stop. The NSA is reading this.  

Mom: Ok. Shhhhhh. Flag, what flag?

Derek: Hey, I’m going to have to go. Love you.

Dylan: Russia

pic: us going undercover ;)

I don't have much time, but this has been a crazy week. In short, my companion and I have been way sick this whole week.  And they turned off the warm water, which I don't care but the only water that worked was water from the Siberian mountains; it was sooo cold! It was like that this whole week. And on Tuesday we had the idea of heating up some water and a cloth caught on fire when we weren't paying attention. It was way funny. Also we had no food this week; we had no money because of some reasons of rent and stuff, but we had little food by Tuesday and gave the rest away to a family who needed it more. So we had no food by Wednesday and no money. It was hilarious. We found a 72 hour kit in our apartment so we found a bag of flour, and we were able to make a ton of bread to eat for the rest of the week, and we miraculously found enough change in our apartment or on the streets to get us to all of our lessons. It was insane how we survived through the week, it is true you really don't need to worry what to eat or how to get there - the Lord will provide.

SO even with all that stuff we were able to get 18 lessons! Which is a ton for us; it's the most I've ever gotten by far! We also had our first game night in Severny.  We made sweet invitations and had it look all good, and we have been inviting everyone to it all week. But we only had 2 people show up. But that's okay we have a lot to learn and will try to do better next week.

So also another thing the church has to go through: so Russia now wants all the volunteers to fill out this huge stack of paperwork, which is no big deal, but we also have to bring a bunch of paperwork to every single member (active, inactive, or against) and have them fill it out or the church has to take out all of their records, so we will be trying to do that this week and I'm sure we have plenty of inactives that will totally be willing to fill it out. 

Love you all ElderVanBuskirk

I haven't had time to read the letter because we woke up at 4 and went emailing and than went on a 2 hour train ride to Taganrode, and had a picnic on the sea, We just got back.  But I love you. All is fine. You are the best mom on the planet and I am lucky to have you!

You’re good, mom. No stress here. Love you. Have a great week mom!!!! <3 send me the video of Spencer please!

Derek: Captin's Log Week 23: El Santo Templo

 "Enter Scripture about the temple here" (Enter Scripture here)

So I didn't have time to find a scripture today because we had to leave for the temple at 6 this morning. But, it was super good, because the temple is super good. And it was nice to talk to all the friends I made there too. Anyways, not much to report, which is weird because this was an extra long week. But as for the work, we had to move one of our fechas for a different week. So we will only be having one baptism this week. She is really good and will be a great member. She is the sister of my first two baptisms I had here, so they will be a very great support system. And this week I got to go on exchanges with my MTC comp, Elder Vigil. It was super fun, but don't worry, we worked super hard as well. So it turns out that our Spanish is good enough that we could technically be comps, which is super good. Also we will be getting transfers sometime between Saturday and Monday night. And I will probably be leaving my first area next Wednesday morning. But not much else to report.

So I don't know how to get the recordings on the computer from my voice recorder. There is no cord or SD card.  Weird.  It is just for recording and playback.

For shipping use DHL, which apparently doesn’t mean Desert Hockey League.

I also lost 17 pounds apparently.

There is also nowhere to buy a camera here. And thanks for the package. You really delivered. The reeses were great, and I’m really loving the oragami and constitution books. And especially the book of photos you made me. That was really great, and I my friends love to look at it. And they where all like “hey where are you in most of these pictures?” because of my hair and stuff. They couldn't believe it was me, haha.

Dylan: You Raise Me Up

Семя и друзья,

So because of the Syria bombing and Russia's relationship with them, we received a text Saturday morning telling us to go low cover until later notice, to take off our ties when on the streets, to ignore and walk away if someone ask if we are Americans, and to lay back on our finding activities. I worry about the possibility that turn more into realities day by day, but I know God's kingdom will press forward no matter what. We always have some lovely Russians who are very straightforward about what they think about our church and us Americans. Like one of my favorites of the week we were on a marshrootka and some nice babushka asked us what church we were from and some grumpy older man yelled from the back  "Who called you here" and my companion who I love said back "a prophet of God" and than he told us to go talk to our prophet then because they don't want us here. we aren't even proselyting all we do is help people. My companion and I were telling each other and making up missionary quotes as we were in bed trying to fall asleep and it was hyping us so much that I fell out out of the top of our bunk bed and all of a sudden we started working out and doing pushups and burbys and stuff until we were able to let the hype out so we could fall back asleep, it was so funny and much needed. We started this thing to help us wake up in the morning where we go over to our window that looks over the city and open it and look out and than one of us says something to pump us up for the day.

It's been my hardest week. I try my hardest to give my all to do everything right, I never stop studying, but I am not getting anywhere. I feel so helpless and so stupid, I have lost all my confidence. I can't seem to remember any Russian, and I've been on my mission for over 5 months and I still can't understand what anyone is saying. I don't know why this is so hard for me, I give it my all, and I work nonstop, even though every time I open my mouth no one seems to understand me or they just laugh, but I still try my hardest to talk to everyone I can. I want nothing else more in the world but to be an instrument in God's hands to help these people and their needs, I just want to be able to understand them so I can know how to help them and share my testimony. It all started hitting me and I just felt so low and helpless, my heart feels so heavy and I can't seem to stop crying in my prayers, I try not to think about my struggles but only about my investigators. I don't know why I can't seem to receive God's help in this, I think he want's to break me down and humble me first, but I never would of thought humbling would be this painful. I know that I am nothing, for as to my own strength I am weak. I know that I need him every hour. I know that I don't have the capacity to do this on my own. I know that I need him to raise me up. I just want to help these people so bad, and I try to give them my all, but I didn't think giving your all would drain you so much and hurt so bad. I try to remember that God is trying really hard to break me down, and I need a lot of breaking down, so he can build me up even stronger. 

Elder Van