ELDER LOGAN CHASE VAN KATWYK
WEEK #89
2/29/16
Hey hey hey!
Glad everyone had a great week and I appreciate all the emails! :)
So little updates with the Sister's investigator Victoria, she didn't end up getting baptized after all. And no progress with the family situation either.
My week, to be honest, was pretty frustrating you could say. Like it was just one of those times were you feel like you're working super hard but not producing the results. And I will give a few examples:
So first and foremost, Samantha ended up dropping us yesterday right before church... She texted and said that she's just going to go to her sister's church and that she's grateful for all the lessons we taught to her. Now, the question stands on if she was telling us that she just wasn't going to come to church, or if she was also saying that she didn't want us to come by anymore. Anyway, so as of right now, we're working with literally nobody. Another thing that has been really frustrating is that it almost seems like when we need the members, they ALWAYS cancel on us. It's super hard to carry this work when we can't even go by our members houses because they are ALWAYS cancelling on us. We set up appointments and then text everybody on Friday and ask them how they're week is looking if we can stop by and they always tell us days to come by but then at church, we follow-up and confirm all of our appointments with the members and they usually say yes. Then during the week some time, they always text us and cancel right before the hour that we're suppose to show up.
I've been super frustrated this whole week, to be honest. I feel like I was just playing games with God and I would do everything to work super hard and get things done but then He'd just take them from us. And I've had a few shouting matches in my head at Heavenly Father but that I have since repented of and many many many repentant prayers asking for his forgiveness for my anger and frustration and such. But I just got super tired of it because it's been happening this whole transfer. We don't have very many ward members or auxiliaries and they are ALL busy. Always. So it's just been really tough.
I've definitely called my Zone Leaders to vent to them and ask for their help because it's a little hard to keep up the morale of my sisters and companion when I, myself, am struggling and frustrated. But everything here is fine. We're just figuring out what to do at this point to prepare ourselves to baptize for next month. Our area and the sisters area has definitely been quite challenging. Especially when neither area has baptized since the summer of last year. But, that is definitely about to change.
As for the sisters, they had 3 people lined to be baptized in February and they all fell through this past week so it was even more frustrating for me.
Anyways, as for the food, we have 4 members who feed us quite regularly every week and to be honest, I don't know who's the best because they aaaalll cook great food :) But as for a "place", I have two. Wingstop and Kahn's Grill :) soooooooo good. Kahn's Grill is like this suuuuuuper good Mongolian Grill. Mmmmmmm :)
Well mom, apparently you have a friend on FB who's a member over here, maybe you can get her to snap pictures of me :p hahah
So Edinburg is like city. I would definitely say it's kinda like Vacaville for sure. It's got the local college, UTRGV here so there's a looooot of college students around. It really just depends where you're at though. The sisters area is filthy rich and ours is a lot more suburb-y(?) and spaced out and "ghetto".
Yesterday we actually had, fast and testimony meeting yesterday since Stake Conference is this coming Sunday. Great testimonies though :)
Well that's about it for this week. I usually talk about the good things that happen so I'd just thought I'd also show the flip-side of things. But hope everyone has a awesome week! Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is everything!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
2/29/16
Hey hey hey!
Glad everyone had a great week and I appreciate all the emails! :)
So little updates with the Sister's investigator Victoria, she didn't end up getting baptized after all. And no progress with the family situation either.
My week, to be honest, was pretty frustrating you could say. Like it was just one of those times were you feel like you're working super hard but not producing the results. And I will give a few examples:
So first and foremost, Samantha ended up dropping us yesterday right before church... She texted and said that she's just going to go to her sister's church and that she's grateful for all the lessons we taught to her. Now, the question stands on if she was telling us that she just wasn't going to come to church, or if she was also saying that she didn't want us to come by anymore. Anyway, so as of right now, we're working with literally nobody. Another thing that has been really frustrating is that it almost seems like when we need the members, they ALWAYS cancel on us. It's super hard to carry this work when we can't even go by our members houses because they are ALWAYS cancelling on us. We set up appointments and then text everybody on Friday and ask them how they're week is looking if we can stop by and they always tell us days to come by but then at church, we follow-up and confirm all of our appointments with the members and they usually say yes. Then during the week some time, they always text us and cancel right before the hour that we're suppose to show up.
I've been super frustrated this whole week, to be honest. I feel like I was just playing games with God and I would do everything to work super hard and get things done but then He'd just take them from us. And I've had a few shouting matches in my head at Heavenly Father but that I have since repented of and many many many repentant prayers asking for his forgiveness for my anger and frustration and such. But I just got super tired of it because it's been happening this whole transfer. We don't have very many ward members or auxiliaries and they are ALL busy. Always. So it's just been really tough.
I've definitely called my Zone Leaders to vent to them and ask for their help because it's a little hard to keep up the morale of my sisters and companion when I, myself, am struggling and frustrated. But everything here is fine. We're just figuring out what to do at this point to prepare ourselves to baptize for next month. Our area and the sisters area has definitely been quite challenging. Especially when neither area has baptized since the summer of last year. But, that is definitely about to change.
As for the sisters, they had 3 people lined to be baptized in February and they all fell through this past week so it was even more frustrating for me.
Anyways, as for the food, we have 4 members who feed us quite regularly every week and to be honest, I don't know who's the best because they aaaalll cook great food :) But as for a "place", I have two. Wingstop and Kahn's Grill :) soooooooo good. Kahn's Grill is like this suuuuuuper good Mongolian Grill. Mmmmmmm :)
Well mom, apparently you have a friend on FB who's a member over here, maybe you can get her to snap pictures of me :p hahah
So Edinburg is like city. I would definitely say it's kinda like Vacaville for sure. It's got the local college, UTRGV here so there's a looooot of college students around. It really just depends where you're at though. The sisters area is filthy rich and ours is a lot more suburb-y(?) and spaced out and "ghetto".
Yesterday we actually had, fast and testimony meeting yesterday since Stake Conference is this coming Sunday. Great testimonies though :)
Well that's about it for this week. I usually talk about the good things that happen so I'd just thought I'd also show the flip-side of things. But hope everyone has a awesome week! Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is everything!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #88
2/22/16
Salutations a todos!
Glad to hear everyone has been doing well this past week!
This week has been pretty good for me. We had a surprise "Mission conference" this past week and Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge came down and spoke with us. It was very good. I guess one of the things that I learned is to help people understand the "Why?". Like helping those we teach understand our "destination", where we're wanting to go with it, what will be happening, and "how"/"why" it's important to them.
This past transfer, we've been really struggling on finding people to teach... And as for the sisters, I'm really working with them super close to they can hit their goal of baptism for this month so they can be the example area for the other sister areas in the mission. Lately, we've been pulling out our hair over this little 9 year old who the sisters have been working with for quite some time, and who is in a family full of less actives/inactives. The only active member in the family is her aunt who is in the YSA ward but she brings her to our ward on Sundays. It's been pretty crazy trying to make things happen because I have the Zone Leaders on me making sure things are getting done and then also the pressure of helping the Sisters be the example area for the other sister in the mission. On top of that, with our Bishop here, he definitely works a little differently than the rest of the branch presidents/bishops I've worked with. He's really going hard making sure the retention is happening and that people are getting baptized for the right reasons. So we have, what you can say, a few extra guide lines we have to follow, which by all means, i think is great because I know he'll make a difference in the Lords kingdom here in Edinburg.
We met with the bishop and his counselors on Sunday before church and talked about the whole situation with the sister missionaries' 9-yr-old investigator, Victoria. And it ended up going very well. There was a lot of understanding between us missionaries and the leadership of the ward and we all walked out of there at peace with the whole situation. I feel I definitely gained their trust having the meeting because they were able to see that we also want to work as a team with them and we're trying to be/and work on the same page as them.
As for our area, we've been really struggling right now finding people to teach. As of right now, we have one person, named Samantha, that we are teaching. And she actually was another "spiritual knock" experience :) Again we just went to a random spot in our area and just started going door to door. Who says that tracting isn't effective? ;) Shes a 19 year old with two kids and lives with her mom. She's a very humble very nice young women and she's been progressing very very well. She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because she had to go to Houston because her brother was having surgery. But she really really wants to come to church next week :)
The area is definitely veeeeerrrry different over here. It's interesting, I've never met so many rude people in my mission in one area before. Like I feel like I've gotten everything so far. Angry dogs, angry people who cuss us out and yell at us to get off their property etc. So it definitely is a little discouraging, but I definitely know that there are people out there that I need to find.
Elder Chamberlain and I had a funny moment the other day. We went out working and we went to this house. We knocked on the door and Chamberlain says, "I'm kinda thirsty". So I look at him and then I look at the ground and I saw a hose. I pick up the hose and I pointed it at him......aaaaaaand turned out the hose water was connected.... and it sprayed him in the face!! I felt sooooooo bad! But I was laughing suuuuper hard. And then he responds "I dont think I'm thirsty anymore". And we just continued laughing about it. Its was pretty funny hahah. Leave it up to me to do something like that hahaha
Well that is all I have for now. The library that I was at yesterday lost internet connection and shut down just as I was finishing up my email so I couldn't send it then but I'm here today. I love you all very much and I hope everything continues to be everything and that you all keep on keepin on! Have a great week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
2/22/16
Salutations a todos!
Glad to hear everyone has been doing well this past week!
This week has been pretty good for me. We had a surprise "Mission conference" this past week and Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge came down and spoke with us. It was very good. I guess one of the things that I learned is to help people understand the "Why?". Like helping those we teach understand our "destination", where we're wanting to go with it, what will be happening, and "how"/"why" it's important to them.
This past transfer, we've been really struggling on finding people to teach... And as for the sisters, I'm really working with them super close to they can hit their goal of baptism for this month so they can be the example area for the other sister areas in the mission. Lately, we've been pulling out our hair over this little 9 year old who the sisters have been working with for quite some time, and who is in a family full of less actives/inactives. The only active member in the family is her aunt who is in the YSA ward but she brings her to our ward on Sundays. It's been pretty crazy trying to make things happen because I have the Zone Leaders on me making sure things are getting done and then also the pressure of helping the Sisters be the example area for the other sister in the mission. On top of that, with our Bishop here, he definitely works a little differently than the rest of the branch presidents/bishops I've worked with. He's really going hard making sure the retention is happening and that people are getting baptized for the right reasons. So we have, what you can say, a few extra guide lines we have to follow, which by all means, i think is great because I know he'll make a difference in the Lords kingdom here in Edinburg.
We met with the bishop and his counselors on Sunday before church and talked about the whole situation with the sister missionaries' 9-yr-old investigator, Victoria. And it ended up going very well. There was a lot of understanding between us missionaries and the leadership of the ward and we all walked out of there at peace with the whole situation. I feel I definitely gained their trust having the meeting because they were able to see that we also want to work as a team with them and we're trying to be/and work on the same page as them.
As for our area, we've been really struggling right now finding people to teach. As of right now, we have one person, named Samantha, that we are teaching. And she actually was another "spiritual knock" experience :) Again we just went to a random spot in our area and just started going door to door. Who says that tracting isn't effective? ;) Shes a 19 year old with two kids and lives with her mom. She's a very humble very nice young women and she's been progressing very very well. She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because she had to go to Houston because her brother was having surgery. But she really really wants to come to church next week :)
The area is definitely veeeeerrrry different over here. It's interesting, I've never met so many rude people in my mission in one area before. Like I feel like I've gotten everything so far. Angry dogs, angry people who cuss us out and yell at us to get off their property etc. So it definitely is a little discouraging, but I definitely know that there are people out there that I need to find.
Elder Chamberlain and I had a funny moment the other day. We went out working and we went to this house. We knocked on the door and Chamberlain says, "I'm kinda thirsty". So I look at him and then I look at the ground and I saw a hose. I pick up the hose and I pointed it at him......aaaaaaand turned out the hose water was connected.... and it sprayed him in the face!! I felt sooooooo bad! But I was laughing suuuuper hard. And then he responds "I dont think I'm thirsty anymore". And we just continued laughing about it. Its was pretty funny hahah. Leave it up to me to do something like that hahaha
Well that is all I have for now. The library that I was at yesterday lost internet connection and shut down just as I was finishing up my email so I couldn't send it then but I'm here today. I love you all very much and I hope everything continues to be everything and that you all keep on keepin on! Have a great week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #87
2/15/16
Happy Valentines day to all!
Well.... late Valentines day I guess hahah And happy late anniversary Cammie and Andy! Hope it was great! My week was pretty good as well!
First, 3-Day happened and I learned a lot. A lot that I don't really remember off the top of my head but one thing I remember was about integrity, or being a person with intregity, and how we need to think, do, and say all the time. When there's an misbalance, it prevents us from calling down miracles from heaven and it's a lot harder for us to make things happen. Another thing I learned is the power of the Book Of Mormon. During the meeting, President basically gave an hour long training on the title page of the Book Of Mormon and it blew my mind hahah. It was a very good meeting with a lot of inspiration. At the end of the meeting on Day 3, we listened to the testimonies of the people who are going home soon. I was pretty emotional a little bit because E. Pulsipher was up there and my other good friend E. Thompson (who was in my zone in Harlingen) but it was very good. It was fun seeing all of my friends and people I've served with in the mission.
Things with Nelly are good. Not too much has happened since I haven't been working a whole lot in my area this past week. But she didn't come to church yesterday :/ So her baptismal date dropped.
The theme actually hasn't changed too much. We do change the focus in accordance to the theme if that makes sense. Like we're still focusing on the "5 pillars" a ton, but then we have different focuses that help us become better at the "5 pillars". I'm definitely super glad that I'm going home before President does, because he set the bar sooooo high for me, that I don't think the new mission president will match up to hahah
My district is still doing great. Here I am still trying to keep up with the sisters hahah because they just tear it up like crazy over here. So now, Chamberlain and I have a goal to beat the sisters this week. We shall see what happens with that hahah It's crazy though. Yesterday during my follow-ups with the sisters, I asked them if there was anything they wanted me to train on for District Meeting (we're finally going to have another tomorrow hahah) and they couldn't think of anything. They were at 3-Day with me as well so they heard everything I heard. I tried asking Chamberlain if there was anything he wanted to learn in specific but he couldn't think of anything either. And then we all did suuuuuuper good this past week by hitting all of our goals, so I have no idea what to train on! hahah oh well, I shall look to inspiration from above.
My favorite P-day activity would be when my zone plays Dart Wars. We buy PVC pipes and darts guns and we play in the gym, set up tables and chairs for different barriers and places for us to duck for cover and we just shoot at each other. That's always fun haha
The music is pretty good here. Because it's a ward, there's more people, more people singing, and there's an organist and conductor. As for sounding good...... eeeehhhhhh.... hahaha
Oh man mom, you got me with this question. So I actually wasn't gonna say anything about this because I didn't wanna scare anybody. (I was gonna save it for after the mission but now that you asked, I will tell you the story)...... So my first week here in Edinburg, on Friday, after Weekly Planning we went out to work to contact referrals. We're walking on this street talking to people and what not. Then we arrive at this house and I got attacked by a dog. (details for after the mission) BUT I AM OK!! I promise, I didn't have to go to the hospital or anything. But I will say, that I definitely felt protected cuz I was pretty scared.
Well that is about all I have for this week. I have pictures for ya! so I shall send them Have a great week. Love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything
~~Elder VanKatwyk
2/15/16
Happy Valentines day to all!
Well.... late Valentines day I guess hahah And happy late anniversary Cammie and Andy! Hope it was great! My week was pretty good as well!
First, 3-Day happened and I learned a lot. A lot that I don't really remember off the top of my head but one thing I remember was about integrity, or being a person with intregity, and how we need to think, do, and say all the time. When there's an misbalance, it prevents us from calling down miracles from heaven and it's a lot harder for us to make things happen. Another thing I learned is the power of the Book Of Mormon. During the meeting, President basically gave an hour long training on the title page of the Book Of Mormon and it blew my mind hahah. It was a very good meeting with a lot of inspiration. At the end of the meeting on Day 3, we listened to the testimonies of the people who are going home soon. I was pretty emotional a little bit because E. Pulsipher was up there and my other good friend E. Thompson (who was in my zone in Harlingen) but it was very good. It was fun seeing all of my friends and people I've served with in the mission.
Things with Nelly are good. Not too much has happened since I haven't been working a whole lot in my area this past week. But she didn't come to church yesterday :/ So her baptismal date dropped.
The theme actually hasn't changed too much. We do change the focus in accordance to the theme if that makes sense. Like we're still focusing on the "5 pillars" a ton, but then we have different focuses that help us become better at the "5 pillars". I'm definitely super glad that I'm going home before President does, because he set the bar sooooo high for me, that I don't think the new mission president will match up to hahah
My district is still doing great. Here I am still trying to keep up with the sisters hahah because they just tear it up like crazy over here. So now, Chamberlain and I have a goal to beat the sisters this week. We shall see what happens with that hahah It's crazy though. Yesterday during my follow-ups with the sisters, I asked them if there was anything they wanted me to train on for District Meeting (we're finally going to have another tomorrow hahah) and they couldn't think of anything. They were at 3-Day with me as well so they heard everything I heard. I tried asking Chamberlain if there was anything he wanted to learn in specific but he couldn't think of anything either. And then we all did suuuuuuper good this past week by hitting all of our goals, so I have no idea what to train on! hahah oh well, I shall look to inspiration from above.
My favorite P-day activity would be when my zone plays Dart Wars. We buy PVC pipes and darts guns and we play in the gym, set up tables and chairs for different barriers and places for us to duck for cover and we just shoot at each other. That's always fun haha
The music is pretty good here. Because it's a ward, there's more people, more people singing, and there's an organist and conductor. As for sounding good...... eeeehhhhhh.... hahaha
Oh man mom, you got me with this question. So I actually wasn't gonna say anything about this because I didn't wanna scare anybody. (I was gonna save it for after the mission but now that you asked, I will tell you the story)...... So my first week here in Edinburg, on Friday, after Weekly Planning we went out to work to contact referrals. We're walking on this street talking to people and what not. Then we arrive at this house and I got attacked by a dog. (details for after the mission) BUT I AM OK!! I promise, I didn't have to go to the hospital or anything. But I will say, that I definitely felt protected cuz I was pretty scared.
Well that is about all I have for this week. I have pictures for ya! so I shall send them Have a great week. Love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #86
2/8/16
Well I always start with the same intro to the emails so I shall change it up...... Salutations!
Hope everyone had a great Super bowl watching-fun! It was probably the one super bowl where I didn't know who was playing lol until yesterday while we were out working hahah But my week was..... good haha So in my district, yes I'm only over sister missionaries. Literally, the district consists of; Me, Elder Chamberlain, Sister Reynolds, and Sister Hortal (District pic coming soon! (when the sisters aren't gone and we're actually able to have district meeting... haha)) And yes it is really weird doing anything cuz now, I don't do exchanges, barely do District Meetings, and and other things. But we're all having a toooonnnn of fun! It's super great. Well, we're not technically all the same District name. Like we are the only missionaries that cover Edinburgh but for English. We're "Edinburgh West", and their area is called "Edinburgh A Pie" (Pronounced with spanish accent lol) Nope. It is just us 4. We are the Fantastic 4 :) haha So the family yesterday was the Cavaso family. And that's our bishop and his family. We go eat at their house every Sunday.
Church was good though! I was on an exchange my Zone Leader or Saturday in their area. But Elder Chamberlain stayed here with the other ZL and they found someone named Nelly and she ended up coming to church yesterday! aaaaaand she brought her Sister! Gospel Principles class was nuts. We were all sitting there and the topic was "The Fall Of Adam And Eve". And man what a lesson that was. That was the most participation and the most involved lesson I have ever seen. Especially for a topic like that hahah We had 3 of our investigators there in the class and the lesson was going reeeaaalllyyy good. Then somehow everyone ended up talking about their conversion stories and they started praising us Chamberlain and I and then the conversation went to talk about baptism to one of our investigators and how she needed to be baptized and such hahah like it was NUTS! But pretty cool. They all stopped during the discussion and they were like, "Missionaries, do you guys have anything to say?" And I just responded, "Nope! I agree with everything. Loving it all" And they all laughed and kept going.
For me and my week not much happened. We got a new car! a 2016 Toyota Corolla. It's pretty sweet :) And then, on Thursday, a member took us out to What-a-burger. That night I started throwing up in the middle of the night and then as soon as I wake up the next morning. I suspected I got food poisoning or something but ya. I was suuuuuper sick somehow and Chamberlain made me call the nurse (I wasn't going to because I knew I was going to have to stay home) But I did it anyways...on the way to a meeting I had to be at. During the meeting, I was dyyyyiiiing haha and barely functioning. But, yes, the nurse made me stay home and sleep. I was sooooo mad... I did not wanna stay home. Every time I get sick I still go out and work and just fought through it. But I had to follow my leader/nurse and stay home. So I slept for 5 hours and then work out to do a few DL responsibilities and then went back to bed and slept all night. I do feel better though. My stomach is still not up to par just yet. After all my hard work stretching my stomach to slam food from back to back meals appointments, I'm back to square one :( And we had to tell the bishop and another family about my sickness. So everyone was asking "Who's the sick one?" and calling me out and stuff hahah But it was good.
Our mission president hasn't really been doing anything super crazy to inspire all of us. He just continues to be President Maluenda and blow our minds with knowledge. This week is 3-Day leadership training to I'll be doing that this week so we shall see what inspiration he comes up with.
Inside jokes...... that's a good question.... I honestly don't think so. Now that you've asked, I'll keep my eye out and ears open.
Our current mission theme is the 5 Pillars. That's actually been Presidents theme my whole mission. And the 5 pillars are 1) Love 2) Obedience 3) Hard Work 4) Great attitude 5) Animo (Or excitement in other words) And the theme in those 5 pillars are the key to success in this mission.
Street vendors... actually there are none around here. I think thats mainly something that they do across the border but here, at least as far that I've seen, I haven't seen anything. Hahah I honestly, don't snack on food really because we have meal appointments all the time so I never have to worry about being hungry really haha
Well that's about all I have for this week. Love you all a ton! Pray for you as well. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is continues to be everything!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #85
2/1/16
Hey Tanner,
Can't wait to beat you at those games that are waiting for me to play :p haha For sure we will definitely have to invent wipers for glasses. It would've helped out a lot when I was biking in Laredo way back when. You taller?? Crap... how tall are you know? Have you passed me yet? lol
Hey hey hey!
Happy birthday Dad! Hope it was a good one! Well, I'm here to put the rumors away... I have been transfered to Edinburg now! My area is called Edinburg West. I am the DL still and you can say I'm also the "Relief Society President" because my district is just sister missionaries hahah And not just sister missionaries, they are what is called, "The STLTs" Which is the Sister Training Leader Trainers. So they're basically like Sister AP's. Needless to say, my DL job is pretty easy this time around because they already know what they're doing, how to work and everything of that nature. Basically what I'm basically doing is making sure that they're creating the "example area" for ALL the sisters in the mission. I'll be honest, it is suuuuuuper weird though having sisters now since I just came from being a DL of all elders hahah BUT, I'm definitely having sooooooo much fun with this district and we're having a lot of fun together.
Some of the things that I'm working on is making sure that the we have good district unity because they're always gone traveling the mission for their leadership calling and so I'm just making sure we really are unified. We call ourselves the "CSI District" because:
Sister Reynolds studied how to read body language before the mission
Sister Hortal wants to become an Interrogator in the FBI.
Then you have me who wants to be a criminal profiler, and
then my companion Elder Chamberlain wants to be an engineer.
So, during a personal study, I made up our CSI roles and I wrote our CSI purpose that we're going to start reciting in District Meetings :) hahah it's a ton of fun.
I even made nicknames for all of us.
Mine is "004",
Chamberlain's is "Q" (James Bond reference indeed),
Sister Hortal is "The Interrog8R"
And Reynolds is "Mystic" Hahaha it's a blast!
Anyways, things are super great here!
Yes, I have now offically been in every single stake in the mission. lol I get moved around a ton. But Edinburg is a great place. It's probably the most "City-like" area in my mission. It has buildings and doesn't look super poor like my previous areas. The Sisters area though..... crazy rich!! Like it's super nuts. And we do serve in an English area so therefore we serve in an English Ward. The Ward is great. It's doing very well. The Bishops actually got called not too long ago and he's doing a very good job. Haven't really seen too big of problems....yet lol
My companion is Elder Chamberlain and he's from South Jordan Utah and has 5 transfers in the mission. The youngest companion I've had on the mission. He's a greeaaatt missionary. Really humble and just has a tender heart towards everything. Just a super loving kid and I'm definitely super blessed to have him as a companion.
Well the last time we laughed was actually just a little bit ago. Here in the library. I went over to ask him for our address and it turned out I already had it hahah not anything super big.
First Sunday was pretty good. Met a lot of members who's names went in one ear and out the other hahah But it was good. It was kinda crazy though because we were really trying to make baptism happen for the sisters but long story short, it didn't happen.
Ehhh, Chamberlain and his last companion left a few investigators but none that we were progressing very well. So we're kind sort of starting from scratch.
Ooooh a teaching moment. Ok so this is another cool spiritual experience that I had today. Yesterday (end of the month) our zone needed just one more baptism to hit our goal for the month of January. And the zone was counting on us to make it happen because the sisters had 3 to 4 people lined up to be baptized. This past week, the sisters were beating themselves up a little bit because they just felt disappointed in themselves and they were really having a hard time keeping the faith and I was just trying super hard to help 'em out and keep 'em animated and such. Yesterday came and we ended up not being able to baptize and I did Follow Ups with the sisters and they were beating themselves up suuuuuuper hard.
I was giving council and advice and dooing the best I could to help them out and things. Once I was done, I was sitting there thinking "How in the world didn't they get a baptism. They worked super hard and they worked so well. Why weren't they able to baptize??" So I prayed about it. Then I just had the thought "Have a comp study tomorrow". While Chamberlain and I were laying in bed, I was talking to him about everything and just how I felt like there was something missing. If they worked super hard but didn't baptize then something was missing. So this morning, I planned for the comp study and all I was doing was writing down questions I wanted to ask. Then the question came, "Are you wanting to baptize to look good for others or are you doing it because you really want them to be baptized?" and that question hit me suuuuuper hard and I knew it was a question I had to ask them.
We had the comp study and everything and I asked the first question I wrote down. They answered. And then it just hit me to ask why they were trying to baptize. So I asked it and I explained to them that the 3 factors of our actions are;
1. Love
2. Fear
3. Self-Benefit
I showed that to them and I asked them where their heart was and without skipping a beat they both said that they were trying to baptize out of fear from getting reprimanded from our leaders and that they wanted to look good because they are suppose to be the example as STL's. We talked more about working with love and it ended up helping out a lot. It really inspired me to talk about all of this to them because during follow-ups, they said, "I don't even want to go to MLC (Mission Leader Conference) because we're going to have to stand up in front of everyone and say that we didn't baptize anyone and then President is going to ask whyyy...." The spirit really hit me and inspired me very strongly to ask them where their heart was at. The comp study ended up helping them a lot and they were definitely inspired to move forward. They have no fear any more and they are ready to go now. Super cool experience :)
Well that is all I have for this week. Super long email hahah But I love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is everything!
~~Elder Vankatwyk
2/1/16
Hey Tanner,
Can't wait to beat you at those games that are waiting for me to play :p haha For sure we will definitely have to invent wipers for glasses. It would've helped out a lot when I was biking in Laredo way back when. You taller?? Crap... how tall are you know? Have you passed me yet? lol
Hey hey hey!
Happy birthday Dad! Hope it was a good one! Well, I'm here to put the rumors away... I have been transfered to Edinburg now! My area is called Edinburg West. I am the DL still and you can say I'm also the "Relief Society President" because my district is just sister missionaries hahah And not just sister missionaries, they are what is called, "The STLTs" Which is the Sister Training Leader Trainers. So they're basically like Sister AP's. Needless to say, my DL job is pretty easy this time around because they already know what they're doing, how to work and everything of that nature. Basically what I'm basically doing is making sure that they're creating the "example area" for ALL the sisters in the mission. I'll be honest, it is suuuuuuper weird though having sisters now since I just came from being a DL of all elders hahah BUT, I'm definitely having sooooooo much fun with this district and we're having a lot of fun together.
Some of the things that I'm working on is making sure that the we have good district unity because they're always gone traveling the mission for their leadership calling and so I'm just making sure we really are unified. We call ourselves the "CSI District" because:
Sister Reynolds studied how to read body language before the mission
Sister Hortal wants to become an Interrogator in the FBI.
Then you have me who wants to be a criminal profiler, and
then my companion Elder Chamberlain wants to be an engineer.
So, during a personal study, I made up our CSI roles and I wrote our CSI purpose that we're going to start reciting in District Meetings :) hahah it's a ton of fun.
I even made nicknames for all of us.
Mine is "004",
Chamberlain's is "Q" (James Bond reference indeed),
Sister Hortal is "The Interrog8R"
And Reynolds is "Mystic" Hahaha it's a blast!
Anyways, things are super great here!
Yes, I have now offically been in every single stake in the mission. lol I get moved around a ton. But Edinburg is a great place. It's probably the most "City-like" area in my mission. It has buildings and doesn't look super poor like my previous areas. The Sisters area though..... crazy rich!! Like it's super nuts. And we do serve in an English area so therefore we serve in an English Ward. The Ward is great. It's doing very well. The Bishops actually got called not too long ago and he's doing a very good job. Haven't really seen too big of problems....yet lol
My companion is Elder Chamberlain and he's from South Jordan Utah and has 5 transfers in the mission. The youngest companion I've had on the mission. He's a greeaaatt missionary. Really humble and just has a tender heart towards everything. Just a super loving kid and I'm definitely super blessed to have him as a companion.
Well the last time we laughed was actually just a little bit ago. Here in the library. I went over to ask him for our address and it turned out I already had it hahah not anything super big.
First Sunday was pretty good. Met a lot of members who's names went in one ear and out the other hahah But it was good. It was kinda crazy though because we were really trying to make baptism happen for the sisters but long story short, it didn't happen.
Ehhh, Chamberlain and his last companion left a few investigators but none that we were progressing very well. So we're kind sort of starting from scratch.
Ooooh a teaching moment. Ok so this is another cool spiritual experience that I had today. Yesterday (end of the month) our zone needed just one more baptism to hit our goal for the month of January. And the zone was counting on us to make it happen because the sisters had 3 to 4 people lined up to be baptized. This past week, the sisters were beating themselves up a little bit because they just felt disappointed in themselves and they were really having a hard time keeping the faith and I was just trying super hard to help 'em out and keep 'em animated and such. Yesterday came and we ended up not being able to baptize and I did Follow Ups with the sisters and they were beating themselves up suuuuuuper hard.
I was giving council and advice and dooing the best I could to help them out and things. Once I was done, I was sitting there thinking "How in the world didn't they get a baptism. They worked super hard and they worked so well. Why weren't they able to baptize??" So I prayed about it. Then I just had the thought "Have a comp study tomorrow". While Chamberlain and I were laying in bed, I was talking to him about everything and just how I felt like there was something missing. If they worked super hard but didn't baptize then something was missing. So this morning, I planned for the comp study and all I was doing was writing down questions I wanted to ask. Then the question came, "Are you wanting to baptize to look good for others or are you doing it because you really want them to be baptized?" and that question hit me suuuuuper hard and I knew it was a question I had to ask them.
We had the comp study and everything and I asked the first question I wrote down. They answered. And then it just hit me to ask why they were trying to baptize. So I asked it and I explained to them that the 3 factors of our actions are;
1. Love
2. Fear
3. Self-Benefit
I showed that to them and I asked them where their heart was and without skipping a beat they both said that they were trying to baptize out of fear from getting reprimanded from our leaders and that they wanted to look good because they are suppose to be the example as STL's. We talked more about working with love and it ended up helping out a lot. It really inspired me to talk about all of this to them because during follow-ups, they said, "I don't even want to go to MLC (Mission Leader Conference) because we're going to have to stand up in front of everyone and say that we didn't baptize anyone and then President is going to ask whyyy...." The spirit really hit me and inspired me very strongly to ask them where their heart was at. The comp study ended up helping them a lot and they were definitely inspired to move forward. They have no fear any more and they are ready to go now. Super cool experience :)
Well that is all I have for this week. Super long email hahah But I love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is everything!
~~Elder Vankatwyk