ELDER LOGAN CHASE VANKATWYK
WEEK #67
9/28/15
Hey hey hey!
To solve all rumors, yes I did get transferred to Brownsville and my new companion is Elder Pulsipher :) Don't really know how it all works. Guess it's all up to the big man upstairs. Rumor has it that everyone thinks Pulsipher is going to get transfered out and I'm going to be the new District Leader and inherit the district since he's been here in Brownsville for 4 transfers already So maybe that'd what Heavenly Father's plan is. Who knows? But yup! We are together once again!! We were both SUPER happy and pumped about that. Literally once we saw each other we just started laughing like crazy. And as well, I've worked with both of my Zone Leaders before so I'm good with them. They always joke around saying that they'll probobly need to keep an eye on Pulsipher and I since we've been companions together before hahah We both still think we're dreaming but it's slowly starting to come to us hahah Right now,because of the time of the year, not really any greenies come out around now because with school starting and such. It's usually during the summer when the most greenies come out because school is out. Well about this whole situation, I"M SUPER PUMPED to be with Pulsipher again!! We had a blast and alot of fun in Laredo. Now it's time to go back at it. Hahaha ya Murph has got a legacy down here honestly. I always have people askin how "he" is and things.
Brownsville is so great. It's super ghetto and Spanish down here. Well actually, my area is the rich area (Which I love being in rich areas) and Spanish, with like a little ghetto part called "Cameron Park". As for biking and the car, I'm in both. It's honestly too big for a bike area, but too small with a car. This past week, we've been walking though because Murph doesn't like bikes. It's been a hastle honestly, and I've felt bad to be such a burden and make everything difficult for Pulsipher and my Zone Leaders and the APs, but that's just what we've been doing this past week.
This past week was awesome though. So to start out, my district is ALL sisters. a.k.a Relief Society. It was really hard leaving Carlos and Eliza and some members in Harlingen though. Eliza and her daughter were crying so much and Elder Maluia and I were crying alot. They all wrote us little notes telling us how much they love us and the girls drew us pictures and thank you notes. It was so sad :/
Here in Brownsville, I've just been going by all the members and getting to know them. As well Pulsipher and I had a baptism yesterday! It's already starting! We baptized a family of 3 and it was a very simple, not stressful baptism. It was super weird though because when I came in, they had their baptismal interview and they were ready to be baptized. I've never had that happen before and I also feel wierd because I barely know them. But they are nice though. I will send a picture of them in the email.
But ya things are great. I'm loving the Spanish after being in an English area just about my whole mission hahah I'm excited. I'm banking on finishing my mission down here ;) 5 transfers. It's possible :)
But that is all for me. I love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything! Have an awesome week!
~~~Elder VanKatwyk
9/28/15
Hey hey hey!
To solve all rumors, yes I did get transferred to Brownsville and my new companion is Elder Pulsipher :) Don't really know how it all works. Guess it's all up to the big man upstairs. Rumor has it that everyone thinks Pulsipher is going to get transfered out and I'm going to be the new District Leader and inherit the district since he's been here in Brownsville for 4 transfers already So maybe that'd what Heavenly Father's plan is. Who knows? But yup! We are together once again!! We were both SUPER happy and pumped about that. Literally once we saw each other we just started laughing like crazy. And as well, I've worked with both of my Zone Leaders before so I'm good with them. They always joke around saying that they'll probobly need to keep an eye on Pulsipher and I since we've been companions together before hahah We both still think we're dreaming but it's slowly starting to come to us hahah Right now,because of the time of the year, not really any greenies come out around now because with school starting and such. It's usually during the summer when the most greenies come out because school is out. Well about this whole situation, I"M SUPER PUMPED to be with Pulsipher again!! We had a blast and alot of fun in Laredo. Now it's time to go back at it. Hahaha ya Murph has got a legacy down here honestly. I always have people askin how "he" is and things.
Brownsville is so great. It's super ghetto and Spanish down here. Well actually, my area is the rich area (Which I love being in rich areas) and Spanish, with like a little ghetto part called "Cameron Park". As for biking and the car, I'm in both. It's honestly too big for a bike area, but too small with a car. This past week, we've been walking though because Murph doesn't like bikes. It's been a hastle honestly, and I've felt bad to be such a burden and make everything difficult for Pulsipher and my Zone Leaders and the APs, but that's just what we've been doing this past week.
This past week was awesome though. So to start out, my district is ALL sisters. a.k.a Relief Society. It was really hard leaving Carlos and Eliza and some members in Harlingen though. Eliza and her daughter were crying so much and Elder Maluia and I were crying alot. They all wrote us little notes telling us how much they love us and the girls drew us pictures and thank you notes. It was so sad :/
Here in Brownsville, I've just been going by all the members and getting to know them. As well Pulsipher and I had a baptism yesterday! It's already starting! We baptized a family of 3 and it was a very simple, not stressful baptism. It was super weird though because when I came in, they had their baptismal interview and they were ready to be baptized. I've never had that happen before and I also feel wierd because I barely know them. But they are nice though. I will send a picture of them in the email.
But ya things are great. I'm loving the Spanish after being in an English area just about my whole mission hahah I'm excited. I'm banking on finishing my mission down here ;) 5 transfers. It's possible :)
But that is all for me. I love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything! Have an awesome week!
~~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #66
9/21/15
Hey hey hey!
Well update on the wallet.... I have not found it :/ So here comes the process on getting everything I need back into it. Missy is doing really good! She's having a great time at church. Comes to church every week and asks questions and participates in Gospel Principles. As for her daughter, we're still working on her really. It's a slow process because of her learning being a little slow, Missy is easing slowly up to it. But she did tell us that Raquel is very comfortable with us, so we don't have to send sister missionaries over there to teach her instead.
To answers Dad's question, the other two funerals was when Maluia and I were back in San Benito and we went to that funeral of the grandson or nephew of the kid who got stabbed at his schools graduation party. Then the second one was the start of this transfer of Carlos's Grandpa's funeral.
Hahahah!!! No way!!!! Elder Latu one time asked, "Hey do you know where Tracy is??" and I was like "Ya I have cousins that live there! Why?" and he was like "My parents moved over by Tracy area", and then we got talking about how cool it would be if he met Nathan and the family. But that is so awesome!! I love Elder Latu. Me and Latu had so so so much fun together :) Hahahah That's so funny that that "whatever lady" guy is still there!!! What a guy who speaks words of wisdom.
Things are going great in the area! I'm continuing to follow my plans on overcoming my fears and being better and bold to people. It's honestly worked out very very well! I'm very excited to see that I've seen improvement in myself.
One experience this past week was something that we did for me to get over my fears was I sang a solo to a member while Maluia played the Ukelele (Mom already knows because of the website hahah) But ya I thought it went very well. Sure don't know how good it sounded, but I was able to do it no problem :)
A little funny experience that happened yesterday was I slipped in Dog poop and pee!!!! We were at the Daniels house and their son, Keaton and I were having a Dart war, and he was chasing me, I rounded a corner, slipped in the air, landed on my hip and elbow, played it off really well, and I shot him and hit him hahah I won that round. But my pants leg was definitely soaked hahah It was super awesome though. I was impressed with myself how well I played it off hahah
But yup, here am I. Another transfer gone. The time is sure going by so so fast. If Elder maluia and I split, I will miss my son. I love him alot and we had a wild fun ride with alot of experiences. Definitely up there on the list of the companions I've had that I've gotten the closest to. But I'm really excited for him for his future mission and what he'll become and I'm grateful for all of his help in helping me become better.
But that is all I have for this week. Stay tuned to see where I'll be next week! I love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything! Have a steller week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
9/21/15
Hey hey hey!
Well update on the wallet.... I have not found it :/ So here comes the process on getting everything I need back into it. Missy is doing really good! She's having a great time at church. Comes to church every week and asks questions and participates in Gospel Principles. As for her daughter, we're still working on her really. It's a slow process because of her learning being a little slow, Missy is easing slowly up to it. But she did tell us that Raquel is very comfortable with us, so we don't have to send sister missionaries over there to teach her instead.
To answers Dad's question, the other two funerals was when Maluia and I were back in San Benito and we went to that funeral of the grandson or nephew of the kid who got stabbed at his schools graduation party. Then the second one was the start of this transfer of Carlos's Grandpa's funeral.
Hahahah!!! No way!!!! Elder Latu one time asked, "Hey do you know where Tracy is??" and I was like "Ya I have cousins that live there! Why?" and he was like "My parents moved over by Tracy area", and then we got talking about how cool it would be if he met Nathan and the family. But that is so awesome!! I love Elder Latu. Me and Latu had so so so much fun together :) Hahahah That's so funny that that "whatever lady" guy is still there!!! What a guy who speaks words of wisdom.
Things are going great in the area! I'm continuing to follow my plans on overcoming my fears and being better and bold to people. It's honestly worked out very very well! I'm very excited to see that I've seen improvement in myself.
One experience this past week was something that we did for me to get over my fears was I sang a solo to a member while Maluia played the Ukelele (Mom already knows because of the website hahah) But ya I thought it went very well. Sure don't know how good it sounded, but I was able to do it no problem :)
A little funny experience that happened yesterday was I slipped in Dog poop and pee!!!! We were at the Daniels house and their son, Keaton and I were having a Dart war, and he was chasing me, I rounded a corner, slipped in the air, landed on my hip and elbow, played it off really well, and I shot him and hit him hahah I won that round. But my pants leg was definitely soaked hahah It was super awesome though. I was impressed with myself how well I played it off hahah
But yup, here am I. Another transfer gone. The time is sure going by so so fast. If Elder maluia and I split, I will miss my son. I love him alot and we had a wild fun ride with alot of experiences. Definitely up there on the list of the companions I've had that I've gotten the closest to. But I'm really excited for him for his future mission and what he'll become and I'm grateful for all of his help in helping me become better.
But that is all I have for this week. Stay tuned to see where I'll be next week! I love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything! Have a steller week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #65
9/14/15
Hey hey hey!
Dad, good luck on the interview for this week. I think I remember that that's what you were saying, which is why your coming home. But none the less, Good luck! I'll keep you in my prayers and I hope it goes well. Sounds like all of the rest of you had quite the fun/entertaining/successful week. Let's take a stroll on how my week was....
My week was pretty good! So on Wednesday was Zone Conference and President and the AP's came over. I learned quite a lot during this meeting. President started off talking about pride and how if we are prideful we will not learn. It decreases our learning capabilities and our progression. Something that I remember from the APs was the story of the Brother of Jared, and we basically ran down the whole process of needing light, rocks, to boat and how easy it is for us to "gather rocks", and from the experience of gathering the rocks, he was able to see God. ....Now there has to be something in between those two variables, because from going outside, picking out random rocks, to seeing God.. how in the world does that work? Well,... he had Faith. And so the whole principle was that we need Faith behind our plans or behind the things we do in this life. They could be easy things such as gathering rocks but as we have faith, we'll be able to "see God" or see miracles.
Walking away from that meeting, I guess one thing that the Spirit helped me realize, was that I'm super sick and tired of my fears. I kind of just got to the point where I was just upset and frustrated at myself. I shared this with Elder Eisunhut during a follow-up and I asked him for help on how I can conquer my fear and be more bold with people and talking to EVERYBODY. He was very understanding and helped me walk through to figure out what I need or should do to help myself. That next day I made plans. I've been doing something called a "Fearless Mind Journal" which was something I learned from one of Eisenhut's trainings. This is basically 1) your goal/objective/vision, 2) what 3 things are you going to do to accomplish your goal/vision/objective, 3) what are two things you did good, one thing you could improve on. So I've been doing that and I've been role playing like crazy to get the hang of it. I also asked Elder Maluia about it and we counselled together about it and such. I've definitely noticed a big huge improvement in that aspect and I'm starting to get more and more comfortable with bold situations. So it's definitely been a successful work in progress :)
Another thing that happen was Maluia and I went to our 3rd funeral on Friday. This time it was for a member of the church who we gave a blessing to but she ended up passing away. It was interesting because you can definitely feel a difference comparing all of the funerals we've gone to. This time, you could just feel the Spirit and a big sense of peace. It just felt more calmer and peaceful, like everyone was at ease. Maybe because no one was howling or wailing or sobbing. I dont know. But man, what a distinct difference.
Well that was really all that happened with me this past week. Keep on keepin on and I love you all and pray for you all. Hope everything continues to be everything and I hope you guys have a great week with loads of fun and success. Cuidense!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
9/14/15
Hey hey hey!
Dad, good luck on the interview for this week. I think I remember that that's what you were saying, which is why your coming home. But none the less, Good luck! I'll keep you in my prayers and I hope it goes well. Sounds like all of the rest of you had quite the fun/entertaining/successful week. Let's take a stroll on how my week was....
My week was pretty good! So on Wednesday was Zone Conference and President and the AP's came over. I learned quite a lot during this meeting. President started off talking about pride and how if we are prideful we will not learn. It decreases our learning capabilities and our progression. Something that I remember from the APs was the story of the Brother of Jared, and we basically ran down the whole process of needing light, rocks, to boat and how easy it is for us to "gather rocks", and from the experience of gathering the rocks, he was able to see God. ....Now there has to be something in between those two variables, because from going outside, picking out random rocks, to seeing God.. how in the world does that work? Well,... he had Faith. And so the whole principle was that we need Faith behind our plans or behind the things we do in this life. They could be easy things such as gathering rocks but as we have faith, we'll be able to "see God" or see miracles.
Walking away from that meeting, I guess one thing that the Spirit helped me realize, was that I'm super sick and tired of my fears. I kind of just got to the point where I was just upset and frustrated at myself. I shared this with Elder Eisunhut during a follow-up and I asked him for help on how I can conquer my fear and be more bold with people and talking to EVERYBODY. He was very understanding and helped me walk through to figure out what I need or should do to help myself. That next day I made plans. I've been doing something called a "Fearless Mind Journal" which was something I learned from one of Eisenhut's trainings. This is basically 1) your goal/objective/vision, 2) what 3 things are you going to do to accomplish your goal/vision/objective, 3) what are two things you did good, one thing you could improve on. So I've been doing that and I've been role playing like crazy to get the hang of it. I also asked Elder Maluia about it and we counselled together about it and such. I've definitely noticed a big huge improvement in that aspect and I'm starting to get more and more comfortable with bold situations. So it's definitely been a successful work in progress :)
Another thing that happen was Maluia and I went to our 3rd funeral on Friday. This time it was for a member of the church who we gave a blessing to but she ended up passing away. It was interesting because you can definitely feel a difference comparing all of the funerals we've gone to. This time, you could just feel the Spirit and a big sense of peace. It just felt more calmer and peaceful, like everyone was at ease. Maybe because no one was howling or wailing or sobbing. I dont know. But man, what a distinct difference.
Well that was really all that happened with me this past week. Keep on keepin on and I love you all and pray for you all. Hope everything continues to be everything and I hope you guys have a great week with loads of fun and success. Cuidense!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #64
9/9/15
Hey everyone!
Thanks Dad for the pictures. Way cool to see the underwater pic! Hope you feel better with your cast Tanner! Reminds me of my good ole days ;)
Well my week was pretty pretty good! Missy got confirmed a member at church on Sunday which was great! :) Tracting this week wasn't anything special. I went on an exchange with Eisenhut and I was working with Acosta in his area. Apparently when I came back, Eisenhut and Maluia had a whole bunch of experiences that I missed. Go figure lol But every Friday, Hancock, Torres, Maluia and I (Us missionaries in the apartment) go to the boys and girls club and challenge kids at basketball for more finding opportunities. I'd say our whole team is pretty well known around these parts hahah But we havn't found anyone who's progressing really well yet. Still lookin!
OH! maybe a cool finding opportunity could be that while I was on the exchange, we found a member who plays snare on his drumline, and so right off the bat me and him hit it off pretty well talking about drumming and all the drum corps and groups and things like that. He told me that they're needing what they call "techs" for their bass line. And so he's trying to talk to his people to see if I can come help them out and work with them. How 'bout that for a missionary opportunity? :) We'll see what happens with that.
So you want to know about the chili cook-off... On sunday was our ward activity and they put us missionaries as the judges for the desserts. So Elder Acosta, Maluia, and I judged all the deserts. Man there were some pretttyy good desserts. mmmmhmm. It was a lot of fun. Hahaha., My cast iron stomach.........that's funny that you say that Mom because down here..... I've realized that I don't have such a cast iron stomach. Every meal has jalapenos or some kind of pepper spice in it hahah and the mexicans down here..... man they make their food HOT!!!! My "cast iron stomach" up there in California, is like a pip-squeeaak stomach down here hahaha but I'm working myself up there haha I think I'm gettin used to the heat in my mouth.
Ohhhhh drumline.... I'm not gonna lie I really miss those days. But, I do pull out my drumsticks and I practice aaaalllll those drumline songs we played in high school and in college. Still deciding if I wanna join any competitive groups or not when I get back. We'll see!
Things down here are a blast! Just work work work. Not a whole lot has happened this past week. We are having zone conference with President Maluenda so we'll see what great learnings I'll have! Hahaha it is a lot of pictures that people are taking down here. I sometimes feel like I'm a celebrity and the paparazzi are just shooting pictures of me or they're wanting me to pose for the camera hahah :p
Well I will close for now. Love you all and pray for you all. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything. Have a steller week and be good! :P
~~Elder VanKatwyk