ELDER LOGAN CHASE VAN KATWYK
WEEK #23
11/24/14
Hey all!
Seems like everyone had a good/busy/eventful week! Way to go Tanner for missing the sink. Glad to hear the tradition of us kids not making it to the sink or toilet when we have to throw up is still going ;) hahah Alright mom, lets not talk about dying while I'm out here. I don't want any of that happening. But I do have a good book that's called "What the Gospel teaches us about the Spirit World" and I'll be honest, it definitely creates a light around the topic of death.
Well not much really happened this week to be honest, so this will be a short email :/ But, my week was good and super busy. So I got called to give a talk on Charity last Monday night and I honestly had not a lot of time to prepare for it because on Wednesday, we went to Corpus Cristi because Elder Foster and his wife came for an Mission Conference. Elder Foster apparently is the head of the family history department but thank goodness he didn't talk about family history haha. He talked a lot about the importance of working with members and the capability that this mission has. One thing he said was with just us missionaries we baptized 70 to 80 a month. But when we have the members truly involved in missionary work, we could have 400 to 500 baptisms a month.... WOOH!!! Then the next day on Thursday we moved to a different apartment and we know live with Elder Clark and Elder Blackman (I'll put the address at the end) (Don't worry mom, the ZL's took our place so they'll let me know when they get the package) Anyways, so we've been cleaning our apartment, then moving, then unloading, then cleaning Clark and Blackman's apartment and moving their stuff then rearranging all our stuff so it all fits, and it's just been crazy. So I've only had like the whole hour of personal study to write my talk for Sunday. To be continued.... ;)
Hmmmmm everyday experiences..... hahaha well, definitely have to include all my bike antics. Like I dunno what it is about me but I've fallen or hit something or anything like that, I dunno how many times. You all would probably think it's hilarious if you saw my "normal days" haha. Ummmm well p-days are honestly the same every Monday lol But contacting.....sheesh. Ok so basically, sadly, our every-day routine for contacting is receiving and contacting referrals. So we decided to tell eachother at a door step that they have to include something random (for example, a chicken, or a crocodile) into the contact. And there no time to think of any ideas because we ring the door bell or knock the door. You just have to roll with it haha A teaching experience...hmmmmm... well the missionaries last week sunday and yesterday had to teach workshops of different sections in PMG. And so Elder Pulsipher and I had the topic of inviting. For the four class we taught (Two each Sunday) went really well. Hopefully they'll be able to remember our invitation we gave them of inviting one person to the branch christmas party thing. And I guess to go along with that I can finish my "talk" story. So Sunday comes and I actually honestly wasn't really nervous like I've usually been in previous times. But I had the thought that there was no way that my talk was going to last 15 minutes or more. So during the sacrament, I just said a prayer and I just asked Heavenly Father to bless with the spirit that I can be able to give this talk with confidence and with power and authority that it can benefit somebody. So, I'm the first speaker to give my talk and i go up and I do my talk and it was a really good experience. I got a lot of comment saying how good it was and their favorite parts and all that stuff :) and when I was finished I sat back down, and I asked my comp "How long was that?" and he said it was 15 minutes. I was like "What!? no way you're kidding right???". So the spirit was able to help me be comfortable and fill me with words and thoughts to the point where I can get up in front of people and be myself people and the members can learn something out of my talk.
My cyst is doing super good. I checked to see how big it is and how it's doin and it's doin really well. It just looks like a cut now so it's gettin there. It's probably water logged so now I'm just gonna start putting dry goz on it for a while to see where it'll go. So far I only have one appointment on thanksgiving. So, stay tuned for that one. Hmmmm favorite part of PMG would probobly be Christlike attritubes. Probably because I've learned a lot about the Character of Christ and the kind of person he was when he was here. And I've definitely learned alot about having those attributes being here on my mission. Laredos whether has been all over the place. it seemed like it was super hot 2 weeks ago, then last week it was suuuuuuuper freezing cold with rain, then recently it thundered and lightninged (Dunno if thats a word. If not,.... it is now :)) and now its sunny with clear sky.
A tender mercy I've feel that I've had is actually in this area, as I've said before, My comp and I have been struggling finding investigators and anything of that nature. We took a whole 3 hour weekly planning evalutating ourselves like what we do throughtout our day that can be impeding that blessing of an investigator. So we talk about our normal day and found what our problems were and did everything we can to fix them. and we called the plan "Project: Do Or Die" because if this plan didn't work, we wouldn't know what to do next. So we followed that plan.....and..... we got an investigator!!!! :) so we made a V.2 of that plan and....for the first time this transfer....we had an investigator at church!!!!! BOOM!!! and our member work is growing really good. So our tender mercy is that we've tried so hard to find and do success in our area that we are now seeing it slowly turn around to something big.
Well that is all I have for this week. Stay tuned! you know the jist, Keep on keepin on and hope everything is everything :) Love you all and I'm also grateful that I follow 4 others who have served missions. That's actually something I really like to tell people is that there are 6 kids and I'm the fifth one to be on a mission. Because I think that is super awesome :) Have good week!
Elder VanKatwyk
11/24/14
Hey all!
Seems like everyone had a good/busy/eventful week! Way to go Tanner for missing the sink. Glad to hear the tradition of us kids not making it to the sink or toilet when we have to throw up is still going ;) hahah Alright mom, lets not talk about dying while I'm out here. I don't want any of that happening. But I do have a good book that's called "What the Gospel teaches us about the Spirit World" and I'll be honest, it definitely creates a light around the topic of death.
Well not much really happened this week to be honest, so this will be a short email :/ But, my week was good and super busy. So I got called to give a talk on Charity last Monday night and I honestly had not a lot of time to prepare for it because on Wednesday, we went to Corpus Cristi because Elder Foster and his wife came for an Mission Conference. Elder Foster apparently is the head of the family history department but thank goodness he didn't talk about family history haha. He talked a lot about the importance of working with members and the capability that this mission has. One thing he said was with just us missionaries we baptized 70 to 80 a month. But when we have the members truly involved in missionary work, we could have 400 to 500 baptisms a month.... WOOH!!! Then the next day on Thursday we moved to a different apartment and we know live with Elder Clark and Elder Blackman (I'll put the address at the end) (Don't worry mom, the ZL's took our place so they'll let me know when they get the package) Anyways, so we've been cleaning our apartment, then moving, then unloading, then cleaning Clark and Blackman's apartment and moving their stuff then rearranging all our stuff so it all fits, and it's just been crazy. So I've only had like the whole hour of personal study to write my talk for Sunday. To be continued.... ;)
Hmmmmm everyday experiences..... hahaha well, definitely have to include all my bike antics. Like I dunno what it is about me but I've fallen or hit something or anything like that, I dunno how many times. You all would probably think it's hilarious if you saw my "normal days" haha. Ummmm well p-days are honestly the same every Monday lol But contacting.....sheesh. Ok so basically, sadly, our every-day routine for contacting is receiving and contacting referrals. So we decided to tell eachother at a door step that they have to include something random (for example, a chicken, or a crocodile) into the contact. And there no time to think of any ideas because we ring the door bell or knock the door. You just have to roll with it haha A teaching experience...hmmmmm... well the missionaries last week sunday and yesterday had to teach workshops of different sections in PMG. And so Elder Pulsipher and I had the topic of inviting. For the four class we taught (Two each Sunday) went really well. Hopefully they'll be able to remember our invitation we gave them of inviting one person to the branch christmas party thing. And I guess to go along with that I can finish my "talk" story. So Sunday comes and I actually honestly wasn't really nervous like I've usually been in previous times. But I had the thought that there was no way that my talk was going to last 15 minutes or more. So during the sacrament, I just said a prayer and I just asked Heavenly Father to bless with the spirit that I can be able to give this talk with confidence and with power and authority that it can benefit somebody. So, I'm the first speaker to give my talk and i go up and I do my talk and it was a really good experience. I got a lot of comment saying how good it was and their favorite parts and all that stuff :) and when I was finished I sat back down, and I asked my comp "How long was that?" and he said it was 15 minutes. I was like "What!? no way you're kidding right???". So the spirit was able to help me be comfortable and fill me with words and thoughts to the point where I can get up in front of people and be myself people and the members can learn something out of my talk.
My cyst is doing super good. I checked to see how big it is and how it's doin and it's doin really well. It just looks like a cut now so it's gettin there. It's probably water logged so now I'm just gonna start putting dry goz on it for a while to see where it'll go. So far I only have one appointment on thanksgiving. So, stay tuned for that one. Hmmmm favorite part of PMG would probobly be Christlike attritubes. Probably because I've learned a lot about the Character of Christ and the kind of person he was when he was here. And I've definitely learned alot about having those attributes being here on my mission. Laredos whether has been all over the place. it seemed like it was super hot 2 weeks ago, then last week it was suuuuuuuper freezing cold with rain, then recently it thundered and lightninged (Dunno if thats a word. If not,.... it is now :)) and now its sunny with clear sky.
A tender mercy I've feel that I've had is actually in this area, as I've said before, My comp and I have been struggling finding investigators and anything of that nature. We took a whole 3 hour weekly planning evalutating ourselves like what we do throughtout our day that can be impeding that blessing of an investigator. So we talk about our normal day and found what our problems were and did everything we can to fix them. and we called the plan "Project: Do Or Die" because if this plan didn't work, we wouldn't know what to do next. So we followed that plan.....and..... we got an investigator!!!! :) so we made a V.2 of that plan and....for the first time this transfer....we had an investigator at church!!!!! BOOM!!! and our member work is growing really good. So our tender mercy is that we've tried so hard to find and do success in our area that we are now seeing it slowly turn around to something big.
Well that is all I have for this week. Stay tuned! you know the jist, Keep on keepin on and hope everything is everything :) Love you all and I'm also grateful that I follow 4 others who have served missions. That's actually something I really like to tell people is that there are 6 kids and I'm the fifth one to be on a mission. Because I think that is super awesome :) Have good week!
Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #22
11/17/14
Hey everyone!
First off... happy birthday to Grant!!! Hope it'll be a good one! Man sounds like everyone had a steller week!! All sorts of awesome travels and experiences! Glad to see everything is everything! :) I had a great week. Same old same old but with new twists to mix things up a little bit to hopefully get one investigators or at least someone who will come to church. But I will start answering the questions:
Hahah well Isaac you can say I helped a lot of people I especially helped out someone and I will mention that later on :) That picture though.....Holy cow Tanner!!! You're almost as tall as mom!!!!!!
Hmmmmm my scripture of the week.... Maybe the story of Moses in Exodus 4 and his attitude and how it changed. The zone leaders gave us a training on attitude because there are some missionaries in the zone who ask questions and complain a lot (not me or my comp lol we just do what we're told) and so they used the story of Moses on his attitude at first and how it changed.
I'm pretty sure President has their kids with them. I remember seeing one of their kids when I first got to McAllen and they have pictures all over the place around their house.
I think the best talk in church would have to be the one about Faith. I honestly don't remember all of what was said about because I was super tired and zoning for some reason but they had some really awesome stories and just how important Faith is and that it's more than just 'hoping', it's 'acting' as well.
Primary.... I would sayyyyy 30 or 40. It's not too big but it's not too small. Well, I guess it depends on if you're talking about the Spanish branch or English branch. Spanish I would say 25 or 30 and English would be probably 30 or 40 kids
Hmmmm my favorite meal here in Laredo.... Oh man. It was like this huuuuuuugggge Mexican sandwich thing called sandwichon. I'll try my best to describe it. French bread, beans, cheese, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, turkey, and some kind of sauce. Ohhhhh man it was sooooooo gooooood haha
Hmmmmm the funnest members.... I have a few actually. But if I had to pick one it would be the Gutman family (which is actually where I had the sandwichon) But ya they both served missions in Mexico. Sister Gutman and her mom are both super sweet, and Brother Gutman is a super crazy but cool dude haha
My spiritual experience this week.....Ok are you ready Isaac? So I met this investigating family from my District Leaders area. The dad is working on a divorce with his wife so he can marry his soon-to-be-wife and then they both can be baptized. The daughter, who's 15, was already able to be baptized. So I was out on an exchange and we talked about the daughters baptism who they want to have baptize her. And Elder Blackman was saying how any one of us elders can do it and they asked if I baptized anyone. I responded "yes but I haven't used my baptismal clothes yet" and so they were like "OH! Quiremos Gato el fin de semana hacerlo" (we want "me" to do it!). This past saturday was the daughter, Paula's baptism and I had the privilege of baptizing her!! I'll be completely honest I've never been so excited about something in my life. The whole last week, I was like "Hey guys, guess what?? I'm baptizing somebody on Saturday!!" hahah I at least said that like 5 times a day. and I memorized the baptismal prayer all week and everything. So Saturday comes and I was all smiles. Elder Blackman said "Man I've never seen him so happy before" haha So it was time for the ordinance and as soon as I was ready. My mind just went blank and I totally forgot the the prayer. She had two last names plus a middle name so I was super focused on getting that right. So I probably had to redo it like 5 or 7 times haha but when I finally got it right and I did the ordinance, I almost started crying because I was so happy because I finally got to baptize someone. So that's my spiritual experience/helping someone.
Well the comp routine when the day is done, is as soon as we get home, we plan for the next day. Then when that's done we just get in our PJ's and write in our journal or do whatever until bed time.
There are a total of 5 branches plus YSA and that's between the 2 zones. North and South Laredo.
But yup that is my week! Hope everything is everything and keep on keepin on! Thanks for your emails and encouragements/wisdom. Love you all a lot and pray for you all! Stay tuned!
Elder VanKatwyk
11/17/14
Hey everyone!
First off... happy birthday to Grant!!! Hope it'll be a good one! Man sounds like everyone had a steller week!! All sorts of awesome travels and experiences! Glad to see everything is everything! :) I had a great week. Same old same old but with new twists to mix things up a little bit to hopefully get one investigators or at least someone who will come to church. But I will start answering the questions:
Hahah well Isaac you can say I helped a lot of people I especially helped out someone and I will mention that later on :) That picture though.....Holy cow Tanner!!! You're almost as tall as mom!!!!!!
Hmmmmm my scripture of the week.... Maybe the story of Moses in Exodus 4 and his attitude and how it changed. The zone leaders gave us a training on attitude because there are some missionaries in the zone who ask questions and complain a lot (not me or my comp lol we just do what we're told) and so they used the story of Moses on his attitude at first and how it changed.
I'm pretty sure President has their kids with them. I remember seeing one of their kids when I first got to McAllen and they have pictures all over the place around their house.
I think the best talk in church would have to be the one about Faith. I honestly don't remember all of what was said about because I was super tired and zoning for some reason but they had some really awesome stories and just how important Faith is and that it's more than just 'hoping', it's 'acting' as well.
Primary.... I would sayyyyy 30 or 40. It's not too big but it's not too small. Well, I guess it depends on if you're talking about the Spanish branch or English branch. Spanish I would say 25 or 30 and English would be probably 30 or 40 kids
Hmmmm my favorite meal here in Laredo.... Oh man. It was like this huuuuuuugggge Mexican sandwich thing called sandwichon. I'll try my best to describe it. French bread, beans, cheese, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, turkey, and some kind of sauce. Ohhhhh man it was sooooooo gooooood haha
Hmmmmm the funnest members.... I have a few actually. But if I had to pick one it would be the Gutman family (which is actually where I had the sandwichon) But ya they both served missions in Mexico. Sister Gutman and her mom are both super sweet, and Brother Gutman is a super crazy but cool dude haha
My spiritual experience this week.....Ok are you ready Isaac? So I met this investigating family from my District Leaders area. The dad is working on a divorce with his wife so he can marry his soon-to-be-wife and then they both can be baptized. The daughter, who's 15, was already able to be baptized. So I was out on an exchange and we talked about the daughters baptism who they want to have baptize her. And Elder Blackman was saying how any one of us elders can do it and they asked if I baptized anyone. I responded "yes but I haven't used my baptismal clothes yet" and so they were like "OH! Quiremos Gato el fin de semana hacerlo" (we want "me" to do it!). This past saturday was the daughter, Paula's baptism and I had the privilege of baptizing her!! I'll be completely honest I've never been so excited about something in my life. The whole last week, I was like "Hey guys, guess what?? I'm baptizing somebody on Saturday!!" hahah I at least said that like 5 times a day. and I memorized the baptismal prayer all week and everything. So Saturday comes and I was all smiles. Elder Blackman said "Man I've never seen him so happy before" haha So it was time for the ordinance and as soon as I was ready. My mind just went blank and I totally forgot the the prayer. She had two last names plus a middle name so I was super focused on getting that right. So I probably had to redo it like 5 or 7 times haha but when I finally got it right and I did the ordinance, I almost started crying because I was so happy because I finally got to baptize someone. So that's my spiritual experience/helping someone.
Well the comp routine when the day is done, is as soon as we get home, we plan for the next day. Then when that's done we just get in our PJ's and write in our journal or do whatever until bed time.
There are a total of 5 branches plus YSA and that's between the 2 zones. North and South Laredo.
But yup that is my week! Hope everything is everything and keep on keepin on! Thanks for your emails and encouragements/wisdom. Love you all a lot and pray for you all! Stay tuned!
Elder VanKatwyk
11/13/14 - Laredo, TX Logan, E. Blackman, E. Pulsipher taking selfies (of course...hehe) E. Blackman was with us becuase E. Clark (Blackman's comp) was at a 3 day leadership training. We found this face stuff that apparently is supposed to help with blackheads. You put it on your facee and 10-15 minutes later you peel it off. It's soooo weird but we just put it on cuz we thought it was hilarious. We look like The Joker.
WEEK #21
11/10/14
Hey everyone!
My idea is still workin!!!! hahaha my cyst has made a lot of progress and it is doing extremely well. My legs on the other hand.....they are like tumors because the muscles are getting strong haha There has never been a day where my thigh muscles haven't hurt so I'm getting a good leg workout. Connor is going to Africa!!!!! WOOOOHHHH!!!!!!! That's a curve ball!!!
I had a great week last week! First on Thursday was interviews with president. And to be honest, I was sooooo scared hahah. But when it was my turn, he asked how I'm liking my mission. And I told him that I loved it and that it's super great. We sit down and he asked me to offer the opening prayer. After the prayer, he asked if there was anything I wanted to ask or talk about, so I said yes and I told him that Elder Pulsipher and I have been struggling with our area finding people (like we literally have no new investigators) and we feel like we've done everything we can think of. So I asked for his help and counsel on anything else we could do to find people who will keep commitments and come to church and then eventually be baptized. He next asked if I had anything with me to write scriptures down and I said yes. He then started staring off "into the heavens" and naming off scripture chapters and then told me to study them. Then there was a little silence in the room and he stared off into the heavens and shook his head a little bit, and told me that I'm doing good on my mission and to increase my relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. So lately I've been working on that. It was cool though because I knew when he told me that, that it was an answer tp my prayers because I kept praying to know how to become a missionary that could be effective in the work and to be the missionary that Heavenly father wants me to be.
So again, I've been studying on that. The next day I studied the scriptures President gave me and it was super awesome as well because it helped me out a lot with my confidence and faith and to boost them back up. As interviews were happening the ZL's and AP's were giving us trainings and we were doing a bunch of role-plays. Laredo South was with us so I actually had the opportunity to role-play with my old CCM comp Elder Duerst. It was a good memory lane, seeing how much we've grown and how our spanish has gotten better. He commented on my spanish on how it's gotten sooooo much better and that I've definitely grown a lot because I'm more alive and active when I speak and teach, instead of at the CCM where I didn't know what in the world I was doing or saying hahah
Random side note..... I've had alooooooot of meal appointments this past week. And to be honest, I almost threw up sooooo many times because of having them back to back. hahaha Sooo i think I just wanna fast for a week with no food haha I'm definitely going to get wrecked on thanksgiving. I'm callin that that'll be the first time I'll throw up from too much food hahah
The Primary Program was yesterday at church. As always, there's never a dull moment during that program. And us missionaries had a role in it too! All we did though was sing the baptism song with the senior primary kids and that was it haha but it was a good time.
Answers:
In Laredo, there are 5 branches plus the YSA. Elder Pulsipher and I only go to Branch 1 (Spanish) and Branch 5 (English)
Laredo has quite a few hills that makes it super tiring to bike haha But my legs are just getting stronger!
Im not really sure what the hangout is in town. There are a lot of random low stream casinos and a lot of mexican restaurants.
I have actually only met a few YSA here in Laredo. There is not a college here that I've seen or heard of and I'm definitely sure there's high school, but again, not that I've seen in my area
Ohhhhh Elder Pulsipher...... hahah he's definitely a jokester and very energetic. When we sing during comp study, we always sing like opera people. A lot of times, it honestly sounds pretty good (i think haha) but ya he's definitely a jokester. But a very hard worker and has good desires and intentions as well.
I speak a lot of Spanish here. Basically all the member, it seems like, speak both english and spanish or if not a little bit of english. We always just talk to them in Spanish. But yes I speak quite a bit of Spanish, which I like. It's funny knocking on a door or starting a conversation and I say "heyyyy hows it goin!?!" and they look all confused and say "No hablo ingles" and then I switch to Spanish hahah Now I'm just assuming every person I talk to doesn't understand english, but the same thing happens too hahaha
Thanks for all the prayers everyone! I'm definitely still upbeat and pushin forward and my health problems do get pushed back; very often actually. Like alot of times, I forget it's even there haha and I forget to put my gauze on and all that stuff hahah But anyways,
Love you all and pray for you all! Keep on keepin on!
Elder VanKatwyk
a.k.a Elder Van "Gato de la fin de semana" (that's my nickname to an investigator that my DL has. Probably the funniest nickname I've ever been called)
WEEK #20
11/3/14
Hey everyone!
So news about my cyst. It's alot better!!!!!! All I've been doing is biking standing up on my bike. My cyst is back to normal and is recovering very well. I guess now you can say that my leg muscles are suuuuper strong now hahah but ya I'm pretty pumped about it. "Be of good cheer for thine afflictions are only but a small moment". True that. There was something I heard from an Apostle saying that when you're a missionary, you basically are in Christ's shoes and you get a little glimpse of how Christ felt during his Atonement. So mom when you say nothing worth doing comes easy is very true. Anyways, I had a good week because of an awesome experience I had. Which I will mention in response to the questions.
Laredo, is pretty big. It's divided into 2 zones, North and South zone. My area is in the North and I'm basically right by the border of Mexico. And feel free to put my home address in Google maps and check out Laredo from there! Laredo, compared to Alice is probably wayyyy bigger than Alice. Alice was pretty big but the North is definitely bigger than Alice.
So my spiritual experience this week/door experience this week/walking experience..... So Elder Pulsipher and I were struggling on how to find people to teach and we literally had 0 investigators. We would always joke around saying "What's the secret!? What is everybody doing that we're not!?" and we would spend numerous hours planning for our area and for this transfer and for ourselves and everything we could think of. Then I got this idea.... since we both really wanted to teach a family that we could each baptize in order to help them receive the blessings of the temple, I had this idea to draw our "dream family" on this piece of paper showing a family of a husband, wife, 14 yr old boy, 11 yr old girl, and a 7 yr old boy and I drew them out and even gave them ages that we felt they should be....this happened like two weeks ago. So....on Saturday, we had no plans at all for that day because we didn't know who or what to plan for. The day before, we went to knock at this house and Elder Pulsipher mentioned he felt like he'd a dream about it, so we knocked it and no one was there. On Saturday we went back and tried it again and it turns out that it wasn't exact with his dream. So then I just had the idea of just knocking on doors at this little court that had like 5 houses and was a pretty wealthy area. I wasn't really expecting to teach anybody or get in anybody's home. We knocked on all the houses and the last house the guy talks to us for like 20 or 25 minutes, but we still didn't get in. We were about to get on our bikes and take off and then I hear "Excuse me....Excuse me" and I turn around and it's this guy standing outside the first house we knocked at. And he says "Did you guys knock on my door a while ago?? I was asleep" and we said ya and he called us over to him. We talked to him and did the whole introduction thing. and he says "Latter-day Saints........I don't know much about them come in, come in". And so we went in, and the feeling I had in that house was unlike anything I've felt before on my mission thus far. And so we sit down and we start discussing similarities between our faith and his Christian faith. And he brought up the question of what makes our church different. So we said "Very good question!" and we started talking about the Priesthood. And he was super interested. He was extremely open with us and talking about personal affairs that's going on in his life right now. And when we asked how many people live here and he says "5 including me" I just about went through the roof and inside I went crazy saying "BOOOM!!!!!!! YESSS!!!!!" and the oldest is a boy and the next 2 are girls. I was soooooooo pumped!!!! But ya so he was super interested about the Priesthood and the power of it. And my comp and I both felt like we needed to give him a blessing. So we explained that we have that same power that Christ had and asked if he would like a blessing and it was funny because he was like "Ya of course!!! Oh and then my daughter can come be apart of it too!!" And he just seemed super excited about it. So he calls his daughter and explains to him what we're doing. After the blessing, he gets up to shake our hand and I saw tears in his eyes and he was telling us that he couldn't explain how grateful he is for us. Awesome experience.
I haven't been able to meet all the ward members yet because we actually go to the Spanish branch at 9am and then the English at 1pm so I haven't been able to get to know the members that well yet. My ward mission leaders are pretty cool. We have coordination with English and Spanish and they're both awesome people.
One thing I learned about Elder Pulsipher is that we can freestyle rap. So before we go out to work we always bust out a rap and a beat to pump us up hahah and that's another thing!! We were so desperate for investigators that we even started writing lyrics to raps we could use or anything like that hahaha
But yup that is my email for this week. Everything is great here and I'm great. Thanks for all you guys have done. I appreciate it and I'm glad everything is everything for everyone else. I pray for you all all the time.
Love you all and keep on keepin on!
Elder VanKatwyk
11/3/14
Hey everyone!
So news about my cyst. It's alot better!!!!!! All I've been doing is biking standing up on my bike. My cyst is back to normal and is recovering very well. I guess now you can say that my leg muscles are suuuuper strong now hahah but ya I'm pretty pumped about it. "Be of good cheer for thine afflictions are only but a small moment". True that. There was something I heard from an Apostle saying that when you're a missionary, you basically are in Christ's shoes and you get a little glimpse of how Christ felt during his Atonement. So mom when you say nothing worth doing comes easy is very true. Anyways, I had a good week because of an awesome experience I had. Which I will mention in response to the questions.
Laredo, is pretty big. It's divided into 2 zones, North and South zone. My area is in the North and I'm basically right by the border of Mexico. And feel free to put my home address in Google maps and check out Laredo from there! Laredo, compared to Alice is probably wayyyy bigger than Alice. Alice was pretty big but the North is definitely bigger than Alice.
So my spiritual experience this week/door experience this week/walking experience..... So Elder Pulsipher and I were struggling on how to find people to teach and we literally had 0 investigators. We would always joke around saying "What's the secret!? What is everybody doing that we're not!?" and we would spend numerous hours planning for our area and for this transfer and for ourselves and everything we could think of. Then I got this idea.... since we both really wanted to teach a family that we could each baptize in order to help them receive the blessings of the temple, I had this idea to draw our "dream family" on this piece of paper showing a family of a husband, wife, 14 yr old boy, 11 yr old girl, and a 7 yr old boy and I drew them out and even gave them ages that we felt they should be....this happened like two weeks ago. So....on Saturday, we had no plans at all for that day because we didn't know who or what to plan for. The day before, we went to knock at this house and Elder Pulsipher mentioned he felt like he'd a dream about it, so we knocked it and no one was there. On Saturday we went back and tried it again and it turns out that it wasn't exact with his dream. So then I just had the idea of just knocking on doors at this little court that had like 5 houses and was a pretty wealthy area. I wasn't really expecting to teach anybody or get in anybody's home. We knocked on all the houses and the last house the guy talks to us for like 20 or 25 minutes, but we still didn't get in. We were about to get on our bikes and take off and then I hear "Excuse me....Excuse me" and I turn around and it's this guy standing outside the first house we knocked at. And he says "Did you guys knock on my door a while ago?? I was asleep" and we said ya and he called us over to him. We talked to him and did the whole introduction thing. and he says "Latter-day Saints........I don't know much about them come in, come in". And so we went in, and the feeling I had in that house was unlike anything I've felt before on my mission thus far. And so we sit down and we start discussing similarities between our faith and his Christian faith. And he brought up the question of what makes our church different. So we said "Very good question!" and we started talking about the Priesthood. And he was super interested. He was extremely open with us and talking about personal affairs that's going on in his life right now. And when we asked how many people live here and he says "5 including me" I just about went through the roof and inside I went crazy saying "BOOOM!!!!!!! YESSS!!!!!" and the oldest is a boy and the next 2 are girls. I was soooooooo pumped!!!! But ya so he was super interested about the Priesthood and the power of it. And my comp and I both felt like we needed to give him a blessing. So we explained that we have that same power that Christ had and asked if he would like a blessing and it was funny because he was like "Ya of course!!! Oh and then my daughter can come be apart of it too!!" And he just seemed super excited about it. So he calls his daughter and explains to him what we're doing. After the blessing, he gets up to shake our hand and I saw tears in his eyes and he was telling us that he couldn't explain how grateful he is for us. Awesome experience.
I haven't been able to meet all the ward members yet because we actually go to the Spanish branch at 9am and then the English at 1pm so I haven't been able to get to know the members that well yet. My ward mission leaders are pretty cool. We have coordination with English and Spanish and they're both awesome people.
One thing I learned about Elder Pulsipher is that we can freestyle rap. So before we go out to work we always bust out a rap and a beat to pump us up hahah and that's another thing!! We were so desperate for investigators that we even started writing lyrics to raps we could use or anything like that hahaha
But yup that is my email for this week. Everything is great here and I'm great. Thanks for all you guys have done. I appreciate it and I'm glad everything is everything for everyone else. I pray for you all all the time.
Love you all and keep on keepin on!
Elder VanKatwyk