ELDER LOGAN CHASE VAN KATWYK
WEEK #63
8/31/15
Hey howdy hey!
Glad everyone is doin' great and everything is grand. Sounds like snorkeling and diving is quite the experience Dad! It's be awesome to maybe see some pictures of the things you see. But that would probably require having to buy a water-proof camera or something. But it does sound like a blast! As for me my week was pretty good! :)
So... Missy got baptized yesterday!! Woop woop! We baptized 3 for this month so far. The most I've ever baptized in a transfer/month. Missy's baptism was very chill. probably the smoothest baptism I've ever seen/been apart of. But it was fun. She was able to skype her "soon-to-be-husband" from Utah so he can "be apart of it" and see it. I'm glad they were able to have that luxury. I apologize for barely talking about this baptism and her. This was just one of those miracle, SUPER prepared people that just came out of no where with the teaching process being very simple and no problems at all. Missy did super duper well! and I'm very excited for her to be married and sealed to her fiancee next year :) She has a few kids. I think 4 to be exact. The youngest is 10? next is 16, and then she has like a 30 something year old and I think a 40 somethin year old. It was a good time
Other than that, not too much happened this week. We've just been trying to find people for next month to find and prepare for baptism. Yesterday we went to the Daniels house and Sister Daniels said to me, "You know I don't know why you're not zone leader! You totally have all the attributes of a good leader and you'd make an awesome leader. Like I'm soo surprised your still senior companion. You just have a way of presenting yourself and you've found your inner spirituality". I had no idea what to say really. But I definitely did feel very good with those comments. Especially from a member :) I just told her that the most important calling in the mission is to train other missionaries. Now that I've done that, I'm in no rush for the call of District Leader or Zone Leader. When it's my time it'll be my time. But I did feel really good though. It made me feel like someone else is able to see my gifts and the kind of person I've turned into.
Well, that is all I have for this week. Glad everything is everything and I hope everyone continues to keep on keepin on. Love you all and pray for you all. Have a steller week! :)
~~Elder VanKatwyk
8/31/15
Hey howdy hey!
Glad everyone is doin' great and everything is grand. Sounds like snorkeling and diving is quite the experience Dad! It's be awesome to maybe see some pictures of the things you see. But that would probably require having to buy a water-proof camera or something. But it does sound like a blast! As for me my week was pretty good! :)
So... Missy got baptized yesterday!! Woop woop! We baptized 3 for this month so far. The most I've ever baptized in a transfer/month. Missy's baptism was very chill. probably the smoothest baptism I've ever seen/been apart of. But it was fun. She was able to skype her "soon-to-be-husband" from Utah so he can "be apart of it" and see it. I'm glad they were able to have that luxury. I apologize for barely talking about this baptism and her. This was just one of those miracle, SUPER prepared people that just came out of no where with the teaching process being very simple and no problems at all. Missy did super duper well! and I'm very excited for her to be married and sealed to her fiancee next year :) She has a few kids. I think 4 to be exact. The youngest is 10? next is 16, and then she has like a 30 something year old and I think a 40 somethin year old. It was a good time
Other than that, not too much happened this week. We've just been trying to find people for next month to find and prepare for baptism. Yesterday we went to the Daniels house and Sister Daniels said to me, "You know I don't know why you're not zone leader! You totally have all the attributes of a good leader and you'd make an awesome leader. Like I'm soo surprised your still senior companion. You just have a way of presenting yourself and you've found your inner spirituality". I had no idea what to say really. But I definitely did feel very good with those comments. Especially from a member :) I just told her that the most important calling in the mission is to train other missionaries. Now that I've done that, I'm in no rush for the call of District Leader or Zone Leader. When it's my time it'll be my time. But I did feel really good though. It made me feel like someone else is able to see my gifts and the kind of person I've turned into.
Well, that is all I have for this week. Glad everything is everything and I hope everyone continues to keep on keepin on. Love you all and pray for you all. Have a steller week! :)
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #62
8/24/15
Hey all!
Wish you the best on your interviews dad! That's some very exciting news and it looks like Heavenly Father is watching over you and he sure is preparing you for something good! Mom, I love the kitty! That's super sad that she had terrible past circumstances but I know she will be very loved at home. Thanks for showing me :) And I'll be honest, I did laugh at that belief :p hahah
As for the video, I was at the home of the Daniel family. The youngest daughter, Kaylee, put aaaalllll sorts of bows in my hair and ya she was handling the phone and shining it right up to our faces while the lights were off in the kitchen hahah It was a fun time. They're super cool. We go and eat at their house every Sunday after church. That facebook page is quite the treat for all the moms. But at the same time, I do have to say that it is quite the blessing because even though I'm a few states away, it's almost like I'm not that far away at all :)
Well, nothing too much happened this week. We worked really hard this past week and we almost hit all of our goals for the week. Our investigator, Missy, got interviewed for baptism, and she passed! SO, we're gonna be baptizing this Sunday again :) Our missionary roomies, Elder Hancock and his greenie Elder Torres, married their investigators and they got baptized yesterday as well as another investigator they were teaching. So they baptized 3 as well and then we're going to baptize our third for the month. So in total, our whole apartment has only gotten more than half the baptisms in our zone and gotten our zone 6/8 baptisms. and we don't have any District Leaders or Zone Leaders living with us. So, without sounding prideful, we feel super duper good. We got the zone and districts off our back!! hahah :) But, in reality we're super pumped. We've been working really hard to help the zone hit our goal and being obedient and as diligent as possible and we've really been blessed a whole lot. I'm grateful for Heavenly Father continuing to bless us with success and trusting us with his children. And I hope he still can.
So that's really about it. Other than that, we're just gonna keep on working and chuggin' along and finding 'those' people! Elder Maluia and I found this super duper nice lady on Friday. Her name is Karla and again.. it was one of those experiences where listening to a simple prompting brought great things. It was like 8:15pm and we had nothing else to do but we still needed to accomplish a key indicator for that day, so I looked on our map and I found this area that never really caught my eye until then, and we'd never knocked that area before either. So we drove to that area, and we park by the main road and we just start walking. Nice houses, pretty well-off afda. We just started walking and Maluia asks "Soooo, where are we goin?". And I just stop and looked around and there was a little Cul-da-sac (however you spell it lol) so I just said "let's go there!" And so we went, and we started making our rounds, knocking on every single door. Eventually we came across this house and that's where we met Karla. She is super sweet and very very nice. We had a smooth contact and it was perfectly lead by the spirit and Maluia and I definitely were able to tell that she felt it too. We didn't set a baptismal date with her but she was very interested :) So we shall see.
Well that was my week. Short and simple. Hope everything is still everything and that everyone continues to be safe. Keep on keepin on!
Love and pray for you all!
Take care and have a killer week!
Elder VanKatwyk
8/24/15
Hey all!
Wish you the best on your interviews dad! That's some very exciting news and it looks like Heavenly Father is watching over you and he sure is preparing you for something good! Mom, I love the kitty! That's super sad that she had terrible past circumstances but I know she will be very loved at home. Thanks for showing me :) And I'll be honest, I did laugh at that belief :p hahah
As for the video, I was at the home of the Daniel family. The youngest daughter, Kaylee, put aaaalllll sorts of bows in my hair and ya she was handling the phone and shining it right up to our faces while the lights were off in the kitchen hahah It was a fun time. They're super cool. We go and eat at their house every Sunday after church. That facebook page is quite the treat for all the moms. But at the same time, I do have to say that it is quite the blessing because even though I'm a few states away, it's almost like I'm not that far away at all :)
Well, nothing too much happened this week. We worked really hard this past week and we almost hit all of our goals for the week. Our investigator, Missy, got interviewed for baptism, and she passed! SO, we're gonna be baptizing this Sunday again :) Our missionary roomies, Elder Hancock and his greenie Elder Torres, married their investigators and they got baptized yesterday as well as another investigator they were teaching. So they baptized 3 as well and then we're going to baptize our third for the month. So in total, our whole apartment has only gotten more than half the baptisms in our zone and gotten our zone 6/8 baptisms. and we don't have any District Leaders or Zone Leaders living with us. So, without sounding prideful, we feel super duper good. We got the zone and districts off our back!! hahah :) But, in reality we're super pumped. We've been working really hard to help the zone hit our goal and being obedient and as diligent as possible and we've really been blessed a whole lot. I'm grateful for Heavenly Father continuing to bless us with success and trusting us with his children. And I hope he still can.
So that's really about it. Other than that, we're just gonna keep on working and chuggin' along and finding 'those' people! Elder Maluia and I found this super duper nice lady on Friday. Her name is Karla and again.. it was one of those experiences where listening to a simple prompting brought great things. It was like 8:15pm and we had nothing else to do but we still needed to accomplish a key indicator for that day, so I looked on our map and I found this area that never really caught my eye until then, and we'd never knocked that area before either. So we drove to that area, and we park by the main road and we just start walking. Nice houses, pretty well-off afda. We just started walking and Maluia asks "Soooo, where are we goin?". And I just stop and looked around and there was a little Cul-da-sac (however you spell it lol) so I just said "let's go there!" And so we went, and we started making our rounds, knocking on every single door. Eventually we came across this house and that's where we met Karla. She is super sweet and very very nice. We had a smooth contact and it was perfectly lead by the spirit and Maluia and I definitely were able to tell that she felt it too. We didn't set a baptismal date with her but she was very interested :) So we shall see.
Well that was my week. Short and simple. Hope everything is still everything and that everyone continues to be safe. Keep on keepin on!
Love and pray for you all!
Take care and have a killer week!
Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #61
8/17/15
Hey hey hey all!
Glad everyone's week was pretty grand. As for my week, it was pretty good too.
I've been having some awesome experiences lately. But first before that.... I'm still here in Harlingen with Elder Maluia! We've been together for 4 transfers now which is very rare to be with a companion for that long. We've both accepted the fact that this is most likely going to be the last transfer we will be together. BUT, we're pretty excited to still be together. It makes me feel super old though, because I've been with him for 1/4 of his mission hahah
Anyway, so on Tuesday, during transfers, we went to Carlos' grandpa's funeral. It was a nice arrangement. Kinda wierd and awkward just because it was more on the Catholic side of the spectrum and there was a lot of crying. It wasn't anything crazy like the past funeral experience but it was nice that we were able to go and pay our respects to the family and Carlos.
So now with the cool experiences. For quite a while I've been praying for 'cool' experiences to where I can be a valuable instrument for Heavenly Father. We have this lady named Linda, and she's going through a hard time with her family. Just a lot of things going on. And one time, we went by and she told us to "go away". So I sent her a text asking if she was still interested in us coming by and helping her. But she never responded. So on Wednesday or Thursday or so, I just had the thought, "I'll just send a text to see how she's doing. And if she'll respond or so. It won't hurt". So I just sent her this text saying "Good morning Linda! How are things?". Then a few minutes later she calls us and Maluia answers, and she was just bawling on the phone (long story short) saying that she's been having all these problems with her grand kids and how she just dropped down to her knees and was praying for help. And then I sent that text a day or two later :)
As Maluia and I were planning for our lesson with her, we were planning on showing her the Mormon Message, "Hope in Gods Light" (or something like that lol) And it turned out that the guy in the video was born in the same year that Linda was. She just started crying a lot while watching the video and she really felt the spirit. It was cool. But who would have known that the video would've connected with her more because of the guys birth year? :)
Another cool experience I had, was on Thursday, I was on an exchange with my District Leader in his area and we were going by this members home. During this day, our district was doing a competition to see who could do the most service during the day. When we went by this member, my DL had this idea to share a Mormon Message video. But then I just had this idea so show them the video, "LIFT" because we were doing service and we just got done talking about how no one wants us to serve them. So we go and we share the video with this member. In the video, (I don't know if you all have seen it, if you haven't I encourage you to check it out. it's a good one :)) it's about this lady who has MS and she is unable to do a lot of things by herself. So the men in the ward were asked to help her, but then it started to become a burden to them. So it just talks about how they all had a change of heart about serving this lady.
Once we were done watching this video, it really touched her because apparently, last week, her doctor told her she has MS now and lately she's been feeling like she didn't want to be a burden to her kids and always have them help her out. My DL was flabbergasted afterwards hahah and was like "Wooohhh!!! That was nuts man!!! Who would have thought that we'd show that particular video after her doctor told her she's got MS!?!?" Hahah it was fun. I told him that I've been having a lot of those experiences lately and it's a lot of fun and humbling to have them.
I now have a testimony of the promptings of the spirit. That the promptings can just come in simple ideas and they don't have to be miraculous to change or bless someone's life. So, it was fun :)
Anyway, that is my week. Hope everything is everything and keep on keepin' on. I love you all and pray for you all and I hope you all have a steller week!
Elder VanKatwyk
8/17/15
Hey hey hey all!
Glad everyone's week was pretty grand. As for my week, it was pretty good too.
I've been having some awesome experiences lately. But first before that.... I'm still here in Harlingen with Elder Maluia! We've been together for 4 transfers now which is very rare to be with a companion for that long. We've both accepted the fact that this is most likely going to be the last transfer we will be together. BUT, we're pretty excited to still be together. It makes me feel super old though, because I've been with him for 1/4 of his mission hahah
Anyway, so on Tuesday, during transfers, we went to Carlos' grandpa's funeral. It was a nice arrangement. Kinda wierd and awkward just because it was more on the Catholic side of the spectrum and there was a lot of crying. It wasn't anything crazy like the past funeral experience but it was nice that we were able to go and pay our respects to the family and Carlos.
So now with the cool experiences. For quite a while I've been praying for 'cool' experiences to where I can be a valuable instrument for Heavenly Father. We have this lady named Linda, and she's going through a hard time with her family. Just a lot of things going on. And one time, we went by and she told us to "go away". So I sent her a text asking if she was still interested in us coming by and helping her. But she never responded. So on Wednesday or Thursday or so, I just had the thought, "I'll just send a text to see how she's doing. And if she'll respond or so. It won't hurt". So I just sent her this text saying "Good morning Linda! How are things?". Then a few minutes later she calls us and Maluia answers, and she was just bawling on the phone (long story short) saying that she's been having all these problems with her grand kids and how she just dropped down to her knees and was praying for help. And then I sent that text a day or two later :)
As Maluia and I were planning for our lesson with her, we were planning on showing her the Mormon Message, "Hope in Gods Light" (or something like that lol) And it turned out that the guy in the video was born in the same year that Linda was. She just started crying a lot while watching the video and she really felt the spirit. It was cool. But who would have known that the video would've connected with her more because of the guys birth year? :)
Another cool experience I had, was on Thursday, I was on an exchange with my District Leader in his area and we were going by this members home. During this day, our district was doing a competition to see who could do the most service during the day. When we went by this member, my DL had this idea to share a Mormon Message video. But then I just had this idea so show them the video, "LIFT" because we were doing service and we just got done talking about how no one wants us to serve them. So we go and we share the video with this member. In the video, (I don't know if you all have seen it, if you haven't I encourage you to check it out. it's a good one :)) it's about this lady who has MS and she is unable to do a lot of things by herself. So the men in the ward were asked to help her, but then it started to become a burden to them. So it just talks about how they all had a change of heart about serving this lady.
Once we were done watching this video, it really touched her because apparently, last week, her doctor told her she has MS now and lately she's been feeling like she didn't want to be a burden to her kids and always have them help her out. My DL was flabbergasted afterwards hahah and was like "Wooohhh!!! That was nuts man!!! Who would have thought that we'd show that particular video after her doctor told her she's got MS!?!?" Hahah it was fun. I told him that I've been having a lot of those experiences lately and it's a lot of fun and humbling to have them.
I now have a testimony of the promptings of the spirit. That the promptings can just come in simple ideas and they don't have to be miraculous to change or bless someone's life. So, it was fun :)
Anyway, that is my week. Hope everything is everything and keep on keepin' on. I love you all and pray for you all and I hope you all have a steller week!
Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #60
8/9/15
Hey hey hey everybody!
Well, I'll just answer all questions about Carlos and Eliza....They got married and were baptized!!!!!! Woop woop!!! That was basically my whole week honestly. However, it was an absolutely crazy week.
I've honestly never seen Satan work so hard on someone in my mission or life. At the beginning of last week, Carlos got sick and was thinking he had strep throat. Then the day of their baptismal interviews, Carlos' water pump broke in his car, then few days later after that, his truck had a flat tire, then the day of the wedding, his radiator broke and his grandpa passed away... I've honestly never been so ticked off and upset at the adversary before in my life. But it was definitely incredible to see Carlos and Eliza's strength. It was really hard when we're getting ready for the wedding and waiting for people to arrive and Carlos gets a call from his uncle saying that his grandpa passed away... He cried a lot.
He immediately went to his mom and to Eliza away from where everybody was at, and he was just crying like crazy. Elder Maluia and I didn't know what to do so we just stood there. We were both just praying that they would still go through with the wedding and that they could be strengthened. Eventually, the wedding did start. But it was sad though because I could tell that no one was as happy as they could have been. But, they still went through with the baptism and wedding :)
I'm glad that on the previous Sunday or monday evening that Elder Maluia and I shared a lesson with them about enduring to the end. For some reason at the time we just felt inspired to teach that and to explain to them that Satan will do everything he can to bring them down and to make them not be baptized and married. I feel like since we shared that lesson with them, that it opened their eyes and they were one hundred percent conscious about what was happening and who was causing it. It gave them hope and courage to stand strong. It was awesome. We're all really excited now that they are baptized and the adversary lost that battle. Next step is the temple! :)
Well that is about all I've got for this week. Not much to say but pictures but pictures mean more than words right? haha But I love you all. Glad everything continues to be everything and I hope everything is everything. i'm definitely feeling productive :) especially after this baptism. Never worked so hard for one before. Love you all and pray for you all
~~Elder Vankatwyk
8/9/15
Hey hey hey everybody!
Well, I'll just answer all questions about Carlos and Eliza....They got married and were baptized!!!!!! Woop woop!!! That was basically my whole week honestly. However, it was an absolutely crazy week.
I've honestly never seen Satan work so hard on someone in my mission or life. At the beginning of last week, Carlos got sick and was thinking he had strep throat. Then the day of their baptismal interviews, Carlos' water pump broke in his car, then few days later after that, his truck had a flat tire, then the day of the wedding, his radiator broke and his grandpa passed away... I've honestly never been so ticked off and upset at the adversary before in my life. But it was definitely incredible to see Carlos and Eliza's strength. It was really hard when we're getting ready for the wedding and waiting for people to arrive and Carlos gets a call from his uncle saying that his grandpa passed away... He cried a lot.
He immediately went to his mom and to Eliza away from where everybody was at, and he was just crying like crazy. Elder Maluia and I didn't know what to do so we just stood there. We were both just praying that they would still go through with the wedding and that they could be strengthened. Eventually, the wedding did start. But it was sad though because I could tell that no one was as happy as they could have been. But, they still went through with the baptism and wedding :)
I'm glad that on the previous Sunday or monday evening that Elder Maluia and I shared a lesson with them about enduring to the end. For some reason at the time we just felt inspired to teach that and to explain to them that Satan will do everything he can to bring them down and to make them not be baptized and married. I feel like since we shared that lesson with them, that it opened their eyes and they were one hundred percent conscious about what was happening and who was causing it. It gave them hope and courage to stand strong. It was awesome. We're all really excited now that they are baptized and the adversary lost that battle. Next step is the temple! :)
Well that is about all I've got for this week. Not much to say but pictures but pictures mean more than words right? haha But I love you all. Glad everything continues to be everything and I hope everything is everything. i'm definitely feeling productive :) especially after this baptism. Never worked so hard for one before. Love you all and pray for you all
~~Elder Vankatwyk
WEEK #59
8/3/15
Hey hey hey!
Sounds like everyone had a great week! Those family gatherings where always fun. And I'm glad everyone was safe in their many, many trips. When I get back, I'm challenging everyone to Mario Kart and Smash Brothers on the Wii-U!! :p :)
As for seminary, that's the vision I'm seeing too. So military-like and uni-formal (if that's even a word) lol So that should be interesting. Man I give those teachers props who have to wake up even EARLIER to teach those students who have A period or Jazz Band. But ya if it was like that when I was in there, I most likely wouldn't have done Jazz Band.
Anyways, My week was pretty good!
So everyone is probably wondering about Carlos and Eliza so I will start with that first..... They're doing awesome!!! They're still getting married on the 8th and baptized on the 9th. Carlos, Eliza, Elder Maluia and I are so so so pumped for it! It was really one of my many goals of my mission to marry a couple so they can get baptized because I remember hearing missionaries talking about their siblings who had to do it. So I thought that was way cool. And here I am! :) Anyways, they're doing super super good. They went and got their marriage license today and the certificate and they got interviewed for baptism yesterday. We've been having fun times with them as well aside from all of this. We were teaching Carlos the rest of the lessons and going over the baptismal interview questions with him and then he invited us over to his parents house to meet his Dad (since we already met his mom) and have burgers. Elder Maluia ate this super super super duper hot jalapeno, just to make Carlos and Eliza laugh. And then I had this chopped up carrot piece that was in jalapeno juice and it burnt my lips like crazy as well! So they got a good laugh out of us. As well, we went to their daughters, Cassie and Amandas T-Ball game so that was fun. They came to church yesterday as well! :D And they invited us for dinner after church. And they made Menudo, because I told them I've never tried it. And so they made it for me to try. And I'll be honest, it wasn't toooooo bad but it's definitely not something I would have aaaaallll the time hahah But they were getting a kick out of my reactions because the smell was horrendous hahaha It was a good time. Then afterwards, we shared a lesson about Enduring To The End and how this week is the final stretch, and how Satan will do everything he can do stop the wedding and baptism from happening. It was a pretty powerful lesson in fact and they understood it really well. Carlos right now is sick with strep throat (But is sounding and getting alot better!) and when we mentioned how Satan will do everything he can to stop then, Carlos said "Ya exactly!!! That's why my throat is like this!! Strike one for Satan" So he instantly made that connection (I had a proud missionary moment) and we also asked them what their next goal was after baptism and they both said "The temple and be sealed as a family!" very enthusiastically. I got this big smile on my face after they said that. Then we go to the interview at the church aaaaaand something happens to Carlos's car. Like the water heater broke or something. And so he was super mad and sad "Strike two" hahah It's a good time. But we'll definitely see how this week goes! This week is going to be very crazy for all of us!
Hmmmmm the roomie I've bonded with the most would definitely be both Hess and Hancock. We all just get along super super well with each other.
My most memorable experience as of right now, would probably be the experience at the funeral last transfer. For sure.
For my birthday, I've been wanting to read this book called Life Everlasting. I've heard it's super super good so I've been wanting to read it. But that's really all that I have as far as specifics go.
Yup transfers are on the 11th.
I've absolutely felt very accomplished with my works here in this area. I feel like Elder Maluia and I started aaaalll the way from the bottom with barely anything to marrying our investigators (that we almost dropped permanently) and baptizing them as well. I honestly, think all the things I've learned this transfer are preparing me to become a District Leader very soon. So I'm definitely feeling like my time is coming very close. If not, then I will have learned all these things for lessons later in life. But ya I have definitely learned so so much this past transfer. It's kinda of hard to explain anything I've learned, but you can definitely say I feel very accomplished and satisfied with my work here if I get transferred. And I feel like if I get transferred that I wont need to look back and/or regret anything.
Well that as all I have for this week. We'll see what happens with week! Pray for Carlos and Eliza to get married and baptized and that they can stay strong. They're looking super super good! I love you all and pray for you always. keep on keeping on and I hope everything will be everything. Have a steller week!
~~Elder VanKatwtyk