ELDER LOGAN CHASE VAN KATWYK
WEEK #97
4/26/16
Hey all!
Glad to see everyone is doing great! And thanks for all the encouraging words. Mom, Mosiah 2:41 is actually a scripture I read a lot to people! :) Basically I have it memorized so I know exactly what it says haha. Thanks for asking him about it mom and seeking for the help of the spirit to know how you can help me. Means alot :) And actually, WE BAPTIZED ON SUNDAYYYYY!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOH!!!!! It was probobly one of the greatest experiences ever!!!!! Victoria, after 4 transfers, was finally baptized along with a wife of this reactivated member!!!! Woooooh!!!!! I was suuuuuuuuper super stoked. Like I honestly almost started tearing, but I held it back because I was a witness and I didn't wanna cry in front of everybody. But it was a great experience for the sisters and I and I'm especially proud of the sisters. They worked suuuuuper, super hard and I'm privileged that I got to be here for their first baptism in this area since they've become the Sister Training Leaders.
I am a day late in emailing and here's why..... We had a mission conference yesterday and Elder Holland came!! It was suuuuper awesome! He's definitely the same powerful speaker like we've all seen him to be in General Conference. But he was really fun. It's always fun having an apostle come to your mission because normally what we see in General Conference is how we portray them to be. Serious, direct, etc. But it's always fun because they always make jokes and you see a different side of them when they visit. And Holland came with E. Lynn G. Robbins who also came last year with E.Dallin H. Oaks. When we all got there, we were all sitting in the gym ready to take a mission picture when the Maluendas, Holland, and Robbins arrived. Then after the picture is when we had to line up and shake their hands. Holland wanted each of us to tell him our name and where we were from. I'll be honest, I was pretty scared and almost forgot where I was from... hahaha Naw it wasn't too bad.
During the meeting, President and Sister Maluenda got up and bore their testimonies and then E. Robbins was next. He basically talked a lot about the characteristics that we can attain from the example of our mission president and his wife. So he asked us to share a few of their characteristics and he compared to what we said on how those characteristics emulated Christ. He also told us that because of the love of our mission president, our mission is the best mission in the United States and Canada with the highest number of baptisms at this time. Mission pride sky rocketed to say the least.
Then after him was E. Holland and he talked a lot about having the spirit with us when we are teaching/working. He basically gave a shout out to our mission saying that we have the best missionaries (and he even said to my sisters that they are the best sister missionaries in the world!!!! Woop woop!!!!) and that he's very happy with us that he was able to talk about working with the spirit instead of talking about waking up on time, being obedient etc. like he "usually has to do". Hopefully all of our pride as a mission didn't go too high... hahaha But it was really cool none the less.
My companion is Elder Peake from South Carolina. And he and I were actually in Brownsville together at the same time and he's out for a year already. The thing I like best about Edinburg is definitely the members. They all treat us super well and feed us aaaallll the time. The worst thing about Edinburg is everyone else hahah We've meet some super mean and rude people here. Like I have definitely never met so many rude people in my mission before this area.
But yup! that is all I have for this week. Love you all and pray for you all and I hope everything continues to stay everything and that you all have a great week! Keep on keepin on!
Elder VanKatwyk
4/26/16
Hey all!
Glad to see everyone is doing great! And thanks for all the encouraging words. Mom, Mosiah 2:41 is actually a scripture I read a lot to people! :) Basically I have it memorized so I know exactly what it says haha. Thanks for asking him about it mom and seeking for the help of the spirit to know how you can help me. Means alot :) And actually, WE BAPTIZED ON SUNDAYYYYY!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOH!!!!! It was probobly one of the greatest experiences ever!!!!! Victoria, after 4 transfers, was finally baptized along with a wife of this reactivated member!!!! Woooooh!!!!! I was suuuuuuuuper super stoked. Like I honestly almost started tearing, but I held it back because I was a witness and I didn't wanna cry in front of everybody. But it was a great experience for the sisters and I and I'm especially proud of the sisters. They worked suuuuuper, super hard and I'm privileged that I got to be here for their first baptism in this area since they've become the Sister Training Leaders.
I am a day late in emailing and here's why..... We had a mission conference yesterday and Elder Holland came!! It was suuuuper awesome! He's definitely the same powerful speaker like we've all seen him to be in General Conference. But he was really fun. It's always fun having an apostle come to your mission because normally what we see in General Conference is how we portray them to be. Serious, direct, etc. But it's always fun because they always make jokes and you see a different side of them when they visit. And Holland came with E. Lynn G. Robbins who also came last year with E.Dallin H. Oaks. When we all got there, we were all sitting in the gym ready to take a mission picture when the Maluendas, Holland, and Robbins arrived. Then after the picture is when we had to line up and shake their hands. Holland wanted each of us to tell him our name and where we were from. I'll be honest, I was pretty scared and almost forgot where I was from... hahaha Naw it wasn't too bad.
During the meeting, President and Sister Maluenda got up and bore their testimonies and then E. Robbins was next. He basically talked a lot about the characteristics that we can attain from the example of our mission president and his wife. So he asked us to share a few of their characteristics and he compared to what we said on how those characteristics emulated Christ. He also told us that because of the love of our mission president, our mission is the best mission in the United States and Canada with the highest number of baptisms at this time. Mission pride sky rocketed to say the least.
Then after him was E. Holland and he talked a lot about having the spirit with us when we are teaching/working. He basically gave a shout out to our mission saying that we have the best missionaries (and he even said to my sisters that they are the best sister missionaries in the world!!!! Woop woop!!!!) and that he's very happy with us that he was able to talk about working with the spirit instead of talking about waking up on time, being obedient etc. like he "usually has to do". Hopefully all of our pride as a mission didn't go too high... hahaha But it was really cool none the less.
My companion is Elder Peake from South Carolina. And he and I were actually in Brownsville together at the same time and he's out for a year already. The thing I like best about Edinburg is definitely the members. They all treat us super well and feed us aaaallll the time. The worst thing about Edinburg is everyone else hahah We've meet some super mean and rude people here. Like I have definitely never met so many rude people in my mission before this area.
But yup! that is all I have for this week. Love you all and pray for you all and I hope everything continues to stay everything and that you all have a great week! Keep on keepin on!
Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #96
4/18/16
Heyyyyyy!
Well first off, transfers..... I'm staying here in Edinburg!!! But Chamberlain is out..... and as for the sisters, they're both staying too!!!!! So it's only Chamberlain that's gone.
Also, I wanna thank you all for your encouraging words. It has helped. I was actually thinking about it this morning on how i think for missionaries, it's hard to see the success that is rendered when one doesn't baptize because with baptisms, it's a success that's just about tangible, which makes it hard to see the other successes that is happening and some fruits when baptism don't happen. Don't know if that made any sense hahah And this past week went really good for all of us as a district! Had to fight super super hard for Victoria, the sisters investigator, to be baptized. BUT a crazy miracle happened this morning!
So I get a call from my Zone Leaders this morning during personal study about the whole situation (SUPER long story which I'm too lazy to tell) But, basically Bishop has been reluctant to baptizing Victoria still and this family that the sisters are also working with. So this morning, I call the sisters to talk to them about the situation, and they had just gotten off the phone with the APs, and they told me that what's going to happen. President Maluenda is going to interview them all so all of them can be baptized THIS Sunday!!! Woop woop!!!! The fight is finally over!!! It was such a relief to know that. SO know we're preparing everything for them to be baptized on Sunday :) Miracles hurray!!
This past week we did an "Edinburg Exchange" and it was a lot of fun. I was working out of my area with an Elder named E. Hodgson and we had a blast. We started right after District Meeting on Tuesday and then we exchanged until coordination Wednesday night. Speaking of District Meeting, Penman and I did a combined District Training and we trained on being urgent and focused to work super hard. And we based it off of The Tree Of Life. And we set it up like we all were around the tree. We had a giant obstacle course around the rooms in the church and we bought yarn and tied the yarn making a trail but we had a few spots that led them the wrong way and they were all blindfolded while doing so. And then at the very end, they reached the "Xmas tree" in the chapel and there was a bunch of apples and oranges around it for the fruit. It was a lot of fun. Then afterwards we committed everyone to go out and set 2 baptismal dates every day. Hodgson and I went super hard and we did very well in his area. Had a ton of fun.
I think for this week, my favorite scripture would have to be something I read in Preach My Gospel. I was actually reading the topic "A Successful Missionary" to try to change my perspective on success and look for other ways where I've seen the success. I've honestly read that and studied that section a ton and it's really helped me out a lot.
I think something that happened this past week that made Chamberlain and I laugh was that we did Yoga as missionaries in Edinburg hahaha It was suuuuuper funny just because a few of us were stretching muscles that we've never stretched before hahaha It was pretty fun.
Well that is all I have for this week. Love you all a ton and hope everything continues to be everything and keep on keepin on!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
4/18/16
Heyyyyyy!
Well first off, transfers..... I'm staying here in Edinburg!!! But Chamberlain is out..... and as for the sisters, they're both staying too!!!!! So it's only Chamberlain that's gone.
Also, I wanna thank you all for your encouraging words. It has helped. I was actually thinking about it this morning on how i think for missionaries, it's hard to see the success that is rendered when one doesn't baptize because with baptisms, it's a success that's just about tangible, which makes it hard to see the other successes that is happening and some fruits when baptism don't happen. Don't know if that made any sense hahah And this past week went really good for all of us as a district! Had to fight super super hard for Victoria, the sisters investigator, to be baptized. BUT a crazy miracle happened this morning!
So I get a call from my Zone Leaders this morning during personal study about the whole situation (SUPER long story which I'm too lazy to tell) But, basically Bishop has been reluctant to baptizing Victoria still and this family that the sisters are also working with. So this morning, I call the sisters to talk to them about the situation, and they had just gotten off the phone with the APs, and they told me that what's going to happen. President Maluenda is going to interview them all so all of them can be baptized THIS Sunday!!! Woop woop!!!! The fight is finally over!!! It was such a relief to know that. SO know we're preparing everything for them to be baptized on Sunday :) Miracles hurray!!
This past week we did an "Edinburg Exchange" and it was a lot of fun. I was working out of my area with an Elder named E. Hodgson and we had a blast. We started right after District Meeting on Tuesday and then we exchanged until coordination Wednesday night. Speaking of District Meeting, Penman and I did a combined District Training and we trained on being urgent and focused to work super hard. And we based it off of The Tree Of Life. And we set it up like we all were around the tree. We had a giant obstacle course around the rooms in the church and we bought yarn and tied the yarn making a trail but we had a few spots that led them the wrong way and they were all blindfolded while doing so. And then at the very end, they reached the "Xmas tree" in the chapel and there was a bunch of apples and oranges around it for the fruit. It was a lot of fun. Then afterwards we committed everyone to go out and set 2 baptismal dates every day. Hodgson and I went super hard and we did very well in his area. Had a ton of fun.
I think for this week, my favorite scripture would have to be something I read in Preach My Gospel. I was actually reading the topic "A Successful Missionary" to try to change my perspective on success and look for other ways where I've seen the success. I've honestly read that and studied that section a ton and it's really helped me out a lot.
I think something that happened this past week that made Chamberlain and I laugh was that we did Yoga as missionaries in Edinburg hahaha It was suuuuuper funny just because a few of us were stretching muscles that we've never stretched before hahaha It was pretty fun.
Well that is all I have for this week. Love you all a ton and hope everything continues to be everything and keep on keepin on!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #95
4/11/16
Hey hey hey!
Happy Birthday Rustin! Hope it all went well! Gettin super old ;) I actually do not have my flight information. Maybe it'll come soon? lol I have no idea. I'm sure it'll be sent to one or both of us some time though.
As for me, I'm doing pretty good. I'll show my moment of weakness by saying this area is hard. for sure. Chamberlain and I were talking about it last night and I made a comment how I feel like I'm just being purged of all my weaknesses to be the "perfect" missionary, but I feel like I fall short every time. We're working super hard but it seems like nothing is coming out of it. I've evaluated myself so much, trying to be as obedient as possible, trying to do the best I can and still nothing. President and the Zone Leaders tell us "focus just on doing your absolute very best". .....Well, I can say that's definitely what I'm doing but nothing is still happening.... So I mean we continue to work hard to have success and edify the kingdom here in Edinburg. Things are still good you can say. Just trying to figure things out. I often wonder if Satan is really working so hard in the people that we're working with. But how are we suppose to fix that? But things are good. Just chuggin' really hard to get things done here before I finish up.
Things with the Bishop and the sister's investigator, Victoria are going good. Still haven't made any progression as far as the actual baptism goes but for satisfying the "wants" of the Bishop, it's going really well. More of Victoria's family came to church which was super awesome! Even her Mom that doesn't have custody over her went! It's progression!
We're working with the Rodriguez family still, and we're working on getting her daughter baptized who's 9. The sad thing is, is they almost came to church yesterday, dressed and everything, but there were "things that had to be addressed". I sensed quite a bit of family problems unfortunately :/ But before we knew that, before church we went by and knocked on the door and rang the door bell, we heard voices and people talking, but no one came to the door. Then we went by after church and met with them and we talked to Judy Rodriguez's mom (Judy is the mom of our 9 year old investigator Norma who we're working with to help her be baptized and Judy's mom is an Inactive member) and Judy's mom explained the parts of the situation that she was comfortable with, but basically told us that they really need us to keep coming over, especially to help the 4 kids know about Jesus Christ. She just wanted to make sure we knew that we are still welcome to come by. So it made us feel better. So we'll just see what we can do.
OH! So a funny experience... So Elder Chamberlain and I met this guy a few days ago and he was reeeaaalllyyy cool and seems really prepared :) On Friday we always have a member that takes us out to eat wherever we want, and so we had him take us to AppleBees (where the guy we met works at). It wasn't until we showed up and we saw him where we kind of laughed and we joked around saying it was a terrible idea now that we were there hahah Turns out we did go to the one he works at and we saw him but luckily we were seated on the opposite side of where he was working. That would have been awkward but it was funny.
Last week I was also on an exchange and I was working in a city called Weslaco with an Elder named Elder Sheehy, and we had a lot of fun. Pretty crazy things were happening during the exchange. Like a member was having CPS problems and had their grandchild taken away to be placed back with her parents that beat her, and then one of their investigator's brother was being taken off life support. So it was a very interesting exchange. I was able to go to the grave site of the missionaries that were killed in 2011 and there was an obituary that was in their apartment. I took a pic of it and I'll send it over.
Hmmmm I think 2 things I've been learning is this week is patience and focus. Patience would be with experience in my area and I was actually studying about it this morning in Preach My Gospel. I liked where it said that, when we have patience "we're not becoming mad or frustrated". ....Ooops got me. So I learned that I'm not having patience. But it is hard because naturally you feel like after all this time you've had patience for things to happen. Another thing would be focus and "How to Be A Successful Missionary". We had a Zone Meeting after the exchange about that and I learned about other perspectives to look at with the word "success".
Well that is all I have for this week. I love you all and pray for you all. Have a great week and I hope everything continues to be everything and keep on keepin on!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
4/11/16
Hey hey hey!
Happy Birthday Rustin! Hope it all went well! Gettin super old ;) I actually do not have my flight information. Maybe it'll come soon? lol I have no idea. I'm sure it'll be sent to one or both of us some time though.
As for me, I'm doing pretty good. I'll show my moment of weakness by saying this area is hard. for sure. Chamberlain and I were talking about it last night and I made a comment how I feel like I'm just being purged of all my weaknesses to be the "perfect" missionary, but I feel like I fall short every time. We're working super hard but it seems like nothing is coming out of it. I've evaluated myself so much, trying to be as obedient as possible, trying to do the best I can and still nothing. President and the Zone Leaders tell us "focus just on doing your absolute very best". .....Well, I can say that's definitely what I'm doing but nothing is still happening.... So I mean we continue to work hard to have success and edify the kingdom here in Edinburg. Things are still good you can say. Just trying to figure things out. I often wonder if Satan is really working so hard in the people that we're working with. But how are we suppose to fix that? But things are good. Just chuggin' really hard to get things done here before I finish up.
Things with the Bishop and the sister's investigator, Victoria are going good. Still haven't made any progression as far as the actual baptism goes but for satisfying the "wants" of the Bishop, it's going really well. More of Victoria's family came to church which was super awesome! Even her Mom that doesn't have custody over her went! It's progression!
We're working with the Rodriguez family still, and we're working on getting her daughter baptized who's 9. The sad thing is, is they almost came to church yesterday, dressed and everything, but there were "things that had to be addressed". I sensed quite a bit of family problems unfortunately :/ But before we knew that, before church we went by and knocked on the door and rang the door bell, we heard voices and people talking, but no one came to the door. Then we went by after church and met with them and we talked to Judy Rodriguez's mom (Judy is the mom of our 9 year old investigator Norma who we're working with to help her be baptized and Judy's mom is an Inactive member) and Judy's mom explained the parts of the situation that she was comfortable with, but basically told us that they really need us to keep coming over, especially to help the 4 kids know about Jesus Christ. She just wanted to make sure we knew that we are still welcome to come by. So it made us feel better. So we'll just see what we can do.
OH! So a funny experience... So Elder Chamberlain and I met this guy a few days ago and he was reeeaaalllyyy cool and seems really prepared :) On Friday we always have a member that takes us out to eat wherever we want, and so we had him take us to AppleBees (where the guy we met works at). It wasn't until we showed up and we saw him where we kind of laughed and we joked around saying it was a terrible idea now that we were there hahah Turns out we did go to the one he works at and we saw him but luckily we were seated on the opposite side of where he was working. That would have been awkward but it was funny.
Last week I was also on an exchange and I was working in a city called Weslaco with an Elder named Elder Sheehy, and we had a lot of fun. Pretty crazy things were happening during the exchange. Like a member was having CPS problems and had their grandchild taken away to be placed back with her parents that beat her, and then one of their investigator's brother was being taken off life support. So it was a very interesting exchange. I was able to go to the grave site of the missionaries that were killed in 2011 and there was an obituary that was in their apartment. I took a pic of it and I'll send it over.
Hmmmm I think 2 things I've been learning is this week is patience and focus. Patience would be with experience in my area and I was actually studying about it this morning in Preach My Gospel. I liked where it said that, when we have patience "we're not becoming mad or frustrated". ....Ooops got me. So I learned that I'm not having patience. But it is hard because naturally you feel like after all this time you've had patience for things to happen. Another thing would be focus and "How to Be A Successful Missionary". We had a Zone Meeting after the exchange about that and I learned about other perspectives to look at with the word "success".
Well that is all I have for this week. I love you all and pray for you all. Have a great week and I hope everything continues to be everything and keep on keepin on!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
April 11, 2016 - Edinburg, TX - Logan went to Weslaco on an exchange and was paired up with Elder Sheehy. They took a field trip to the death site of two Elders in 2011. Elder Strong and Elder Walker were killed while riding their bikes in a hit-n-run with a car. A third elder was treated and released. Their obitituary can be found in their old apartment. Elder Strong has just extended his mission so that he could help train a couple of missionaries and complete work with a couple of families. Elder Walker has just been made a senior companion and volunteered to give a presentation at a training conference that morning prior to his death.
WEEK #94
4/4/16
Hey howdy hey!
Hope everyone had a great Conference! And I'm glad everything continues to be everything with you all!
My week went pretty well, as well. We've been finding a few families to teach this past week as well.
On Friday we had a surprise leadership meeting with President Maluenda and it was pretty much because we as a mission did horrible with baptisms in the month of March. For me, being as 'old as I am', I've seen the faith in this mission go down soooooo so much. We haven't hit our goal in so many months now and it's just really sad to see. Back then, we were hitting our goals like crazy, if not we were at least getting close to our monthly baptism goals we set. There's definitely a big difference that I can feel; interestingly enough.
Before the meeting, us District Leaders met up and just had a little meeting with ourselves and it ended up going very well! We talked about a lot of good things such as some problems in the zone and how we can improve them. Especially since, the mission/zones depend on us leaders. The meeting went very well. President basically got up there and called us all to repentance...hahah He especially talked in english just about the whole time...that's when you know it's bad. But he still continued to correct the leadership with great love.
Not really too much happened this past week. I do have a bunch of pictures to send so I'm sure with this email, pictures will speak louder than words cuz I sure got nothin hahah The work here is good though. Just going day by day trying to bless the lives of others. Especially to work them up to baptism before I go home.
The council from the interview is going well. We actually saw a lot of miracles this past week from the switch I made from the interview so it did really help out a lot. But other than that, I'm just continuing to hold it out to the end.
I love you all and pray for you all. Have a great week and stay awesome! Hope everything continues to be everything and keep on keepin on
~~Elder VanKatwyk
4/4/16
Hey howdy hey!
Hope everyone had a great Conference! And I'm glad everything continues to be everything with you all!
My week went pretty well, as well. We've been finding a few families to teach this past week as well.
On Friday we had a surprise leadership meeting with President Maluenda and it was pretty much because we as a mission did horrible with baptisms in the month of March. For me, being as 'old as I am', I've seen the faith in this mission go down soooooo so much. We haven't hit our goal in so many months now and it's just really sad to see. Back then, we were hitting our goals like crazy, if not we were at least getting close to our monthly baptism goals we set. There's definitely a big difference that I can feel; interestingly enough.
Before the meeting, us District Leaders met up and just had a little meeting with ourselves and it ended up going very well! We talked about a lot of good things such as some problems in the zone and how we can improve them. Especially since, the mission/zones depend on us leaders. The meeting went very well. President basically got up there and called us all to repentance...hahah He especially talked in english just about the whole time...that's when you know it's bad. But he still continued to correct the leadership with great love.
Not really too much happened this past week. I do have a bunch of pictures to send so I'm sure with this email, pictures will speak louder than words cuz I sure got nothin hahah The work here is good though. Just going day by day trying to bless the lives of others. Especially to work them up to baptism before I go home.
The council from the interview is going well. We actually saw a lot of miracles this past week from the switch I made from the interview so it did really help out a lot. But other than that, I'm just continuing to hold it out to the end.
I love you all and pray for you all. Have a great week and stay awesome! Hope everything continues to be everything and keep on keepin on
~~Elder VanKatwyk