ELDER LOGAN CHASE VANKATWYK
WEEK #76
11/30/2015
Hey hey hey!
Happy thanksgiving to one and all. Hope it was all good! As for mine... lets just say that I survived again!! hahah Basically I didn't really eat a whole lot again. We did however get hooked up big time haha We didn't sit down and eat a whole lot but the members were kind enough to give us food to take home. So right now our fridge is pretty stacked haha
I have to say, I laughed quite a bit about the whole throwing up experiences. It just made me laugh, reminiscing on when Tanner threw up a trillion times when we had Elise Nelson in the car with us. Maybe that's just what the family is known for. We make pretty good first impressions with our throwing up hahaha But nonetheless, I hope everyone is feeling better! Here is the same circumstance. There's a sickness going around down here as well. Hopefully, I'll be fortunate a not get hit by it.
As for this week. Not too much to write about. On Tuesday, the ZL's came over because I was going to do an exchange with them in my area. So, during my district meeting, they came in..... with an AP. I was definitely super scared and nervous giving my training and everything but it still went really well. We had a district dance off and we wore goofy clothes for it and then I gave my training on Obedience. But it went well nonetheless. Afterwards, I found out that the AP was going to be with me and Elder Velez during the exchange so I was even more scared. But, it turned out to be a great day. I kind of sat back a little bit at first to see how they work and to learn from what they do. And then we started working as a team and we ended up hitting all of our goals for that day. After that day, I did my first exchange with E. Madsen and it went pretty well too. We saw this giant snake in the road so we stopped to throw rocks at it (lol) we finally hit it and it jumped like crazy so it freaked us out and we ran back to our truck as fast as possible hahah
Not much else really has happened this past week. We're teaching this lady named Sonia and her daughter Vanessa and they're progressing very well. It's been pretty hectic because we ran through the baptismal interview questions earlier and we found out that she hadn't prayed about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet. So we barged through a lot of doubts and concerns and everything and it ended up going very well. Long story short, they're both doing awesome and looking very good for baptism. Truthfully, they were suppose to get baptized yesterday but due to complications with the Word Of Wisdom, she wasn't able to. It was probably our fault, because we probably didn't emphasize the importance of keeping it enough and we didn't follow up on it as much as we should have. But everything is taken care of and they are getting baptized this sunday :) Woop woop!
The district had been doing good. I would definitely say that this week was probably the best week of the transfer. Super proud of them :)
I think that's about it for this letter. I love you guys a lot and pray for you all. Keep on keepin' on and I hope everything continues to be everything. Have a great week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
11/30/2015
Hey hey hey!
Happy thanksgiving to one and all. Hope it was all good! As for mine... lets just say that I survived again!! hahah Basically I didn't really eat a whole lot again. We did however get hooked up big time haha We didn't sit down and eat a whole lot but the members were kind enough to give us food to take home. So right now our fridge is pretty stacked haha
I have to say, I laughed quite a bit about the whole throwing up experiences. It just made me laugh, reminiscing on when Tanner threw up a trillion times when we had Elise Nelson in the car with us. Maybe that's just what the family is known for. We make pretty good first impressions with our throwing up hahaha But nonetheless, I hope everyone is feeling better! Here is the same circumstance. There's a sickness going around down here as well. Hopefully, I'll be fortunate a not get hit by it.
As for this week. Not too much to write about. On Tuesday, the ZL's came over because I was going to do an exchange with them in my area. So, during my district meeting, they came in..... with an AP. I was definitely super scared and nervous giving my training and everything but it still went really well. We had a district dance off and we wore goofy clothes for it and then I gave my training on Obedience. But it went well nonetheless. Afterwards, I found out that the AP was going to be with me and Elder Velez during the exchange so I was even more scared. But, it turned out to be a great day. I kind of sat back a little bit at first to see how they work and to learn from what they do. And then we started working as a team and we ended up hitting all of our goals for that day. After that day, I did my first exchange with E. Madsen and it went pretty well too. We saw this giant snake in the road so we stopped to throw rocks at it (lol) we finally hit it and it jumped like crazy so it freaked us out and we ran back to our truck as fast as possible hahah
Not much else really has happened this past week. We're teaching this lady named Sonia and her daughter Vanessa and they're progressing very well. It's been pretty hectic because we ran through the baptismal interview questions earlier and we found out that she hadn't prayed about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet. So we barged through a lot of doubts and concerns and everything and it ended up going very well. Long story short, they're both doing awesome and looking very good for baptism. Truthfully, they were suppose to get baptized yesterday but due to complications with the Word Of Wisdom, she wasn't able to. It was probably our fault, because we probably didn't emphasize the importance of keeping it enough and we didn't follow up on it as much as we should have. But everything is taken care of and they are getting baptized this sunday :) Woop woop!
The district had been doing good. I would definitely say that this week was probably the best week of the transfer. Super proud of them :)
I think that's about it for this letter. I love you guys a lot and pray for you all. Keep on keepin' on and I hope everything continues to be everything. Have a great week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #75
11/23/15
Hey howdy hey!
Glad everyone's week was pretty awesome. I'm super jealous I'm missing Apple Hill again :/ Save me a Carmel apple!! :) And happy thanksgiving to all!! Hope it'll be great and filled with fun times. Yes, I will be in Roma for this years Thanksgiving. Knock on wood that I wont be bombarded with meal appointments this time around since I got only two last year in Laredo hahah. Ya the paparazzi is different in this area. In Harlingen they would just come up to me and say that they were going to be taking a pic for our moms. Here, the paparazzi is a lot more sneaky haha So I never know. Ohhhhhh ya I love my white truck!! I feel like a real man with that. My Honda Civic will always have a spot in my heart though as well :) but yes that truck is fun to ride haha. Ya during those videos, I really have no idea what to say.
Well this past week, I was at meetings in McAllen for the special 3-Day leadership training where all the DL's and ZL's go down and receive leadership trainings from Pres and all the leadership. We'd basically wake up at 5 in the morning because there were 6 of us missionaries in an apartment and we had to be at the church by like 7:30 or so. The first night, I literally slept on the ground again with just my pillow and blanket haha We would be at the meeting until like 4 o'clock and then we would go out to work after that. They'd assign us companionships and fortunately, I was working with my Zone Leader Elder Perkins and with Elder Falcon (From Laredo and Harlingen) So we had a lot of fun.
I learned a lot from those meetings. One that stood out to me was that President went really hard on forgetting ourselves and losing ourselves in the service of others. And when we do that that's when we really grow and how we can model our work to be Good, Better, Best. It's interesting because he said in this mission, everyone always wants to know how they themselves can improve and how they can look better themselves. It's a great thing to do, but when we do that we're worrying about ourselves. He told us that if we worry more about how we can help better other people and do things to help others, that's when we find true happiness. I thought it was very interesting when he said that in the mission, we're trying to be at a certain point and always looking to become better. But it's also what is stopping us from growing.
I've pondered that a lot since then and I've seen that in the mission since becoming a DL. My Zone Leader, Elder Velez on Friday, while we were following-up said that he wanted to take a little moment and say how much he's proud of me for all I've done and for how much I've grown and that I always have a positive attitude and I'm always so happy and "getting things done" and being confident in myself and my leadership abilities, and he wanted to tell me that I've come such a long way from the beginning of the transfer the beginning of this month. I agreed and I told him that I have seen a huuuuuge change in myself. He asked me what's been happening and what I've been doing. I paused for a while and I told him that it's just because I'm always doing things to help out the missionaries in my district. Everything I do, I try to do for the district and for my sheep. I think about them all day and wonder how they're doing and from that, as I've just focused on them and their well-being, that's when I'm the most happy. I've found I have the most joy sacrificing myself to help bless them the best I can. I'm always making plans for my district and individual missionaries, my studies are always for the district, always praying for them by name and always trying to do the best I can to help inspire them and bless them. It's made me feel pretty good! And it's definitely true when we lose ourselves we will find ourselves.
So before we came to email, I had interviews with Elder Madsen and Elder Monnett. It was a pretty cool experience! It's super awesome how the spirit guides me with inspiration and guidance. I was able to figure out and give council on how to help these elders with their problems so they can become better missionaries and more together. It was quite the spiritual experience being able to be inspired and follow the spirit with the right questions to ask to be able to help them out.
Well that's about it for me this week. I love you all and pray for you all. Hope everything continues to be everything and just remember to keep on keeping on! Have a great week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
11/23/15
Hey howdy hey!
Glad everyone's week was pretty awesome. I'm super jealous I'm missing Apple Hill again :/ Save me a Carmel apple!! :) And happy thanksgiving to all!! Hope it'll be great and filled with fun times. Yes, I will be in Roma for this years Thanksgiving. Knock on wood that I wont be bombarded with meal appointments this time around since I got only two last year in Laredo hahah. Ya the paparazzi is different in this area. In Harlingen they would just come up to me and say that they were going to be taking a pic for our moms. Here, the paparazzi is a lot more sneaky haha So I never know. Ohhhhhh ya I love my white truck!! I feel like a real man with that. My Honda Civic will always have a spot in my heart though as well :) but yes that truck is fun to ride haha. Ya during those videos, I really have no idea what to say.
Well this past week, I was at meetings in McAllen for the special 3-Day leadership training where all the DL's and ZL's go down and receive leadership trainings from Pres and all the leadership. We'd basically wake up at 5 in the morning because there were 6 of us missionaries in an apartment and we had to be at the church by like 7:30 or so. The first night, I literally slept on the ground again with just my pillow and blanket haha We would be at the meeting until like 4 o'clock and then we would go out to work after that. They'd assign us companionships and fortunately, I was working with my Zone Leader Elder Perkins and with Elder Falcon (From Laredo and Harlingen) So we had a lot of fun.
I learned a lot from those meetings. One that stood out to me was that President went really hard on forgetting ourselves and losing ourselves in the service of others. And when we do that that's when we really grow and how we can model our work to be Good, Better, Best. It's interesting because he said in this mission, everyone always wants to know how they themselves can improve and how they can look better themselves. It's a great thing to do, but when we do that we're worrying about ourselves. He told us that if we worry more about how we can help better other people and do things to help others, that's when we find true happiness. I thought it was very interesting when he said that in the mission, we're trying to be at a certain point and always looking to become better. But it's also what is stopping us from growing.
I've pondered that a lot since then and I've seen that in the mission since becoming a DL. My Zone Leader, Elder Velez on Friday, while we were following-up said that he wanted to take a little moment and say how much he's proud of me for all I've done and for how much I've grown and that I always have a positive attitude and I'm always so happy and "getting things done" and being confident in myself and my leadership abilities, and he wanted to tell me that I've come such a long way from the beginning of the transfer the beginning of this month. I agreed and I told him that I have seen a huuuuuge change in myself. He asked me what's been happening and what I've been doing. I paused for a while and I told him that it's just because I'm always doing things to help out the missionaries in my district. Everything I do, I try to do for the district and for my sheep. I think about them all day and wonder how they're doing and from that, as I've just focused on them and their well-being, that's when I'm the most happy. I've found I have the most joy sacrificing myself to help bless them the best I can. I'm always making plans for my district and individual missionaries, my studies are always for the district, always praying for them by name and always trying to do the best I can to help inspire them and bless them. It's made me feel pretty good! And it's definitely true when we lose ourselves we will find ourselves.
So before we came to email, I had interviews with Elder Madsen and Elder Monnett. It was a pretty cool experience! It's super awesome how the spirit guides me with inspiration and guidance. I was able to figure out and give council on how to help these elders with their problems so they can become better missionaries and more together. It was quite the spiritual experience being able to be inspired and follow the spirit with the right questions to ask to be able to help them out.
Well that's about it for me this week. I love you all and pray for you all. Hope everything continues to be everything and just remember to keep on keeping on! Have a great week!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
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WEEK #74
11/16/15
Hey hey hey!
Well I have A LOT to say and pictures to send so I'll get right to it.
My week has been so so so insane. So to start, I've definitely felt like I've grown a huge ton from last week. I feel like I've become more comfortable with myself and my District Leadership abilities. So, one of the companionships in my district was struggling super bad. And one thing I've learned from the responsibility is that I get corrected A LOT by the Zone Leaders haha But anyway, they're whitewashing so they've just been going by members to get to know them and such (which is a good thing to do). But, their numbers and efforts were not good at all.
I scheduled to have a comp study with Monnett and Madsen on Saturday and then interviews with Birrell and Juarez on Monday so I can get a one-on-one with them. Earlier in the week, the ZLs (Perkins and Velez) and I were talking a lot about Birrell and Juarez on how we can help them out to improve because my district was in the lower range in the zone. So they told me to do something about that and they helped me out with ideas. Saturday came, and I had the comp study with the Las Lomas Elders and it went really well. Then we drove to pick up the other companionship from their apartment to take them to the library with us.
Once we got there, the ZL's called and I basically had to do a private phone call with them and we talked more about Elder Birrell. So, we counciled together, and long story short, I basically decided to do the interview right there in the library instead of waiting till Monday to correct the Elder. This was beuase the ZL's had informed me of some things that Birrell was doing and so I knew I needed to take care of it right away so I called the interview right then and there and I interviewed Juarez first. It went good. He's a greenie so I helped council him and I gave him advice about his mission and we talked about what I saw and about how he was doing. Now, it was his companions turn. I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous and worried because at the time, it was hard for me to be straight up and give correction. Just basically how I used to be. More loving, than bold. But this was the time to change that. And I was nervous, but I knew what had to be done and what I needed to correct him on. And I especially wanted to follow my leaders. So, we had the interview, I told him that I didn't want them to be satisfied with achieving lower than their full potential and that the numbers that they're showing are unacceptable. I was with him for an hour or a little bit over. It turned out to be a very spiritual experience for the both of us. And it went very, very well. I then called the Zone Leaders and gave them the run down on what happened. They then told me that I did a very good job in handling the situation and taking care of it and standing up to the plate to correct. I definitely grew from that experience and I feel like I'm much more confident in myself and my leadership.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done in this branch, honestly. I've never seen where so little people attend church and I've just heard sooooooo much gossip from members about other members. I've set up meetings every week to where we meet together as missionaries and as a District make plans for the branch and how we can strengthen it. I feel like it's been going very good and it's been really helping out a lot. I feel like my purpose here is to help build this "stick" up and to fix and heal what has been done in the past from everyone; missionaries, members, etc.
So I had a Potipher's Wife experience.... hahah We went to Walmart so Alonso could get a USB. Of course we had to go to the electronics section to get it and we needed someone to unlock the rack for us. There was this guy displaying the PS4 and a new video game (that I've wanted to play!!) and he was getting people to try it out. The guy caught us and asked us if we wanted to try out the new game. I said "well it's really tempting but I probably shouldn't." and he kept persisting on me trying to get me to play it and I kept turning it down and finally he asked "why not?" and so I told him that as missionaries we're not suppose to play video games in order to keep our mind focused. And then he was just like "Oh..." and put the controller down. Honestly, it was a very tempting, hard experience, but I walked away feeling good :) But naw, it definitely tore me up because you know mom, every time we went to Target or Walmart that's where I went hahah
Well the other DL's in the Mission Zone are Elder Duerst (my MTC comp), Elder Angles, Elder Eisenhut (from Harlingen) and Elder Robinson. None of which are close to me (We live the farthest away in the zone. Next transfers are December 15 or 16th. You just sent a christmas stocking for me and one for my comp as well. Right now it looks like it'll just be us staying in the apartment. Alonso has like 7 or 8 months in his mission. I watched him be born in the mission because that's when I left Laredo to Harlingen. Actually it's kind of wierd, literally none of us live together. Guess we're really spread out? Contacts and knocking doors were good this week. We've been finding a lot of people since I've been here and we're teaching a lot of people. People are very interesting here. Everyone is lazy. Probably the laziest amount of people I've ever had to work with in my mission hahah Interesting combination... Prideful and lazy. The truck is white :) and nope we don't bike here. We walk instead because of Murph. And yes mom, it was an actual door contacting experience :) We took Jandely and her friend out with us to knock doors on Friday. And I guess they took pictures of us hahah
Ummmmm let's see what else happened.... Yup! We had a baptism yesterday of Janell Clarke. I was privileged to be Alonso's companion when he was able to see his first baptism :) Well I guess, janell's story is that her mom passed away from cancer a while ago and she had a lot of hard times in her life. Jandely is our star youth member because she knows a lot of people and she just brings people to church and so Janell just showed up at church according to Alonso. He was fortunate enough to work with her thru the point of baptism. I did have an assignment. I was the chorister and I said the opening prayer hahah and yes the guy that baptized her is Brother Claward. He is a S.T.U.D. EVERYBODY loves him. Super popular at the high school he teaches at, fluent at 5 different languages, studied abroad in Germany. Like that guy is perfect hahah
OH I also forgot to talk about what my area is like. It's super nuts. There are cops aaalllll over that drive around and are parked everywhere. I've heard gunshots around the city and there's a helicopter that flies around with a spotlight. That's when you know it's real hahaha
Well, that is all I have for this week. I'll close for now so I can get the pictures to ya because I have a lot. Love you guys alot. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is everything.
~~Elder VanKatwyk
11/16/15
Hey hey hey!
Well I have A LOT to say and pictures to send so I'll get right to it.
My week has been so so so insane. So to start, I've definitely felt like I've grown a huge ton from last week. I feel like I've become more comfortable with myself and my District Leadership abilities. So, one of the companionships in my district was struggling super bad. And one thing I've learned from the responsibility is that I get corrected A LOT by the Zone Leaders haha But anyway, they're whitewashing so they've just been going by members to get to know them and such (which is a good thing to do). But, their numbers and efforts were not good at all.
I scheduled to have a comp study with Monnett and Madsen on Saturday and then interviews with Birrell and Juarez on Monday so I can get a one-on-one with them. Earlier in the week, the ZLs (Perkins and Velez) and I were talking a lot about Birrell and Juarez on how we can help them out to improve because my district was in the lower range in the zone. So they told me to do something about that and they helped me out with ideas. Saturday came, and I had the comp study with the Las Lomas Elders and it went really well. Then we drove to pick up the other companionship from their apartment to take them to the library with us.
Once we got there, the ZL's called and I basically had to do a private phone call with them and we talked more about Elder Birrell. So, we counciled together, and long story short, I basically decided to do the interview right there in the library instead of waiting till Monday to correct the Elder. This was beuase the ZL's had informed me of some things that Birrell was doing and so I knew I needed to take care of it right away so I called the interview right then and there and I interviewed Juarez first. It went good. He's a greenie so I helped council him and I gave him advice about his mission and we talked about what I saw and about how he was doing. Now, it was his companions turn. I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous and worried because at the time, it was hard for me to be straight up and give correction. Just basically how I used to be. More loving, than bold. But this was the time to change that. And I was nervous, but I knew what had to be done and what I needed to correct him on. And I especially wanted to follow my leaders. So, we had the interview, I told him that I didn't want them to be satisfied with achieving lower than their full potential and that the numbers that they're showing are unacceptable. I was with him for an hour or a little bit over. It turned out to be a very spiritual experience for the both of us. And it went very, very well. I then called the Zone Leaders and gave them the run down on what happened. They then told me that I did a very good job in handling the situation and taking care of it and standing up to the plate to correct. I definitely grew from that experience and I feel like I'm much more confident in myself and my leadership.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done in this branch, honestly. I've never seen where so little people attend church and I've just heard sooooooo much gossip from members about other members. I've set up meetings every week to where we meet together as missionaries and as a District make plans for the branch and how we can strengthen it. I feel like it's been going very good and it's been really helping out a lot. I feel like my purpose here is to help build this "stick" up and to fix and heal what has been done in the past from everyone; missionaries, members, etc.
So I had a Potipher's Wife experience.... hahah We went to Walmart so Alonso could get a USB. Of course we had to go to the electronics section to get it and we needed someone to unlock the rack for us. There was this guy displaying the PS4 and a new video game (that I've wanted to play!!) and he was getting people to try it out. The guy caught us and asked us if we wanted to try out the new game. I said "well it's really tempting but I probably shouldn't." and he kept persisting on me trying to get me to play it and I kept turning it down and finally he asked "why not?" and so I told him that as missionaries we're not suppose to play video games in order to keep our mind focused. And then he was just like "Oh..." and put the controller down. Honestly, it was a very tempting, hard experience, but I walked away feeling good :) But naw, it definitely tore me up because you know mom, every time we went to Target or Walmart that's where I went hahah
Well the other DL's in the Mission Zone are Elder Duerst (my MTC comp), Elder Angles, Elder Eisenhut (from Harlingen) and Elder Robinson. None of which are close to me (We live the farthest away in the zone. Next transfers are December 15 or 16th. You just sent a christmas stocking for me and one for my comp as well. Right now it looks like it'll just be us staying in the apartment. Alonso has like 7 or 8 months in his mission. I watched him be born in the mission because that's when I left Laredo to Harlingen. Actually it's kind of wierd, literally none of us live together. Guess we're really spread out? Contacts and knocking doors were good this week. We've been finding a lot of people since I've been here and we're teaching a lot of people. People are very interesting here. Everyone is lazy. Probably the laziest amount of people I've ever had to work with in my mission hahah Interesting combination... Prideful and lazy. The truck is white :) and nope we don't bike here. We walk instead because of Murph. And yes mom, it was an actual door contacting experience :) We took Jandely and her friend out with us to knock doors on Friday. And I guess they took pictures of us hahah
Ummmmm let's see what else happened.... Yup! We had a baptism yesterday of Janell Clarke. I was privileged to be Alonso's companion when he was able to see his first baptism :) Well I guess, janell's story is that her mom passed away from cancer a while ago and she had a lot of hard times in her life. Jandely is our star youth member because she knows a lot of people and she just brings people to church and so Janell just showed up at church according to Alonso. He was fortunate enough to work with her thru the point of baptism. I did have an assignment. I was the chorister and I said the opening prayer hahah and yes the guy that baptized her is Brother Claward. He is a S.T.U.D. EVERYBODY loves him. Super popular at the high school he teaches at, fluent at 5 different languages, studied abroad in Germany. Like that guy is perfect hahah
OH I also forgot to talk about what my area is like. It's super nuts. There are cops aaalllll over that drive around and are parked everywhere. I've heard gunshots around the city and there's a helicopter that flies around with a spotlight. That's when you know it's real hahaha
Well, that is all I have for this week. I'll close for now so I can get the pictures to ya because I have a lot. Love you guys alot. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything is everything.
~~Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #73
11/9/15
Hey everyone!
Hahah Well... as you all already know (mom :p) I did get transferred. My area is called Roma and I am with Elder Alonso. Funny though because me and him were in the same zone in Harlingen! I'm just going back to serve with missionaries I already know haha
My area in Roma is very VERY ghetto. We drive a truck because the roads are terrible because there's a buncha pot holes everywhere. But at the same time, there are still those random rich house areas that we go knock at :)
The zone I'm in is the Mission Zone and we are the Rio Grande District and I'm in charge of 2 other companionship of elders plus my companion. An All-Bro District :) Luckily we all serve in the Rio Grande Branch together.
Apparently, the branch is reeaalllyyy struggling. One of the elderly office couples who is in charge of the finances is also the branch president as well, I've heard that missionaries basically do everything in the branch because there is no (or very little) priesthood. Because I'm District Leader, I will have to be the translator up there translating Spanish to English. So it'll be interesting. We have alooootttt of work to do.
"Conferencia de Estaca" means Stake Conference. "Mission", meaning the location or city next to McAllen, since that's where we went for the broadcast. As for our apartment, it's just Alonso and I haha
So the stake conference broadcast was really good. To be honest, I accidentally fell asleep for a little bit so I missed a little. BUT, Lynn G Robbins spoke about "simplicity". And then Oaks spoke about........ "finding truth and revelation, repentance", and some other things. Mix of things really. And then the other two, I don't remember their names.... Only what they look like... hahah Oops.
Things down here are pretty good! This past week, I was just getting in the groove with my District Leader responsibilities. When I was with Pulsipher, we both got sick. Then last week, I was suuuuuper congested and I had a frog in my throat so I couldn't really talk to well. But I was able to give my first training in District Meeting. But things are good. It's a 'work in progress' just getting the flow going smoothly.
My area is very different. It's interestingly a lot different than Brownsville. Our main road is mainly the highway so it's super hard to figure out where to turn when you're going 60mph on the highway lol But it's fun. I've met a few members who are pretty cool. Apparently before I got here, there were things going down between the branch members. So there's just a lot of work we have to do here. It's kind of hard because my district is the farthest away from anything so it's basically just us here and I'm running the show getting things down. The Zone Leaders can't really do too much with us because of the distance away from everybody and everything. So, it's just me basically. Just a lot of work building up the branch/members because of pride that some of the members had and the decisions they made that affected others. A lot of things to clean up, but I hope since I've been called as DL here that I can make a change and help out this branch and ultimately inspire my sheep to do great things.
It's been nuts though getting into the groove of things because there is such a big difference between a regular missionary and a district leader. I've been making plans on plans on plans on plans on my missionaries, area, my vision, the vision of the ZL's and how I'm going to carry out that vision to my district and it's just nuts! Super duper busy but I've definitely felt like I've grown a lot already. So, we shall see what happens in the future!
Well, that is about all I have for this week. Congrats on the baby Cammie and welcome Eden to the fam! It was crazy to think that I was gone the whole entire time of pregnancy all the way to the birth! But Sister Bolanos showed me the picture of her which I really liked. Hope you all have a great week and I love you all a lot. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
11/9/15
Hey everyone!
Hahah Well... as you all already know (mom :p) I did get transferred. My area is called Roma and I am with Elder Alonso. Funny though because me and him were in the same zone in Harlingen! I'm just going back to serve with missionaries I already know haha
My area in Roma is very VERY ghetto. We drive a truck because the roads are terrible because there's a buncha pot holes everywhere. But at the same time, there are still those random rich house areas that we go knock at :)
The zone I'm in is the Mission Zone and we are the Rio Grande District and I'm in charge of 2 other companionship of elders plus my companion. An All-Bro District :) Luckily we all serve in the Rio Grande Branch together.
Apparently, the branch is reeaalllyyy struggling. One of the elderly office couples who is in charge of the finances is also the branch president as well, I've heard that missionaries basically do everything in the branch because there is no (or very little) priesthood. Because I'm District Leader, I will have to be the translator up there translating Spanish to English. So it'll be interesting. We have alooootttt of work to do.
"Conferencia de Estaca" means Stake Conference. "Mission", meaning the location or city next to McAllen, since that's where we went for the broadcast. As for our apartment, it's just Alonso and I haha
So the stake conference broadcast was really good. To be honest, I accidentally fell asleep for a little bit so I missed a little. BUT, Lynn G Robbins spoke about "simplicity". And then Oaks spoke about........ "finding truth and revelation, repentance", and some other things. Mix of things really. And then the other two, I don't remember their names.... Only what they look like... hahah Oops.
Things down here are pretty good! This past week, I was just getting in the groove with my District Leader responsibilities. When I was with Pulsipher, we both got sick. Then last week, I was suuuuuper congested and I had a frog in my throat so I couldn't really talk to well. But I was able to give my first training in District Meeting. But things are good. It's a 'work in progress' just getting the flow going smoothly.
My area is very different. It's interestingly a lot different than Brownsville. Our main road is mainly the highway so it's super hard to figure out where to turn when you're going 60mph on the highway lol But it's fun. I've met a few members who are pretty cool. Apparently before I got here, there were things going down between the branch members. So there's just a lot of work we have to do here. It's kind of hard because my district is the farthest away from anything so it's basically just us here and I'm running the show getting things down. The Zone Leaders can't really do too much with us because of the distance away from everybody and everything. So, it's just me basically. Just a lot of work building up the branch/members because of pride that some of the members had and the decisions they made that affected others. A lot of things to clean up, but I hope since I've been called as DL here that I can make a change and help out this branch and ultimately inspire my sheep to do great things.
It's been nuts though getting into the groove of things because there is such a big difference between a regular missionary and a district leader. I've been making plans on plans on plans on plans on my missionaries, area, my vision, the vision of the ZL's and how I'm going to carry out that vision to my district and it's just nuts! Super duper busy but I've definitely felt like I've grown a lot already. So, we shall see what happens in the future!
Well, that is about all I have for this week. Congrats on the baby Cammie and welcome Eden to the fam! It was crazy to think that I was gone the whole entire time of pregnancy all the way to the birth! But Sister Bolanos showed me the picture of her which I really liked. Hope you all have a great week and I love you all a lot. Keep on keepin on and I hope everything continues to be everything!
~~Elder VanKatwyk
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WEEK #72
11/2/15
Hey hey hey!
Happy late Halloween to everyone. Hope it was a fun time for you all! So to start.... Yes transfers are already here. Can you believe it? It was definitely the fastest transfer of my mission. I'm just scared it'll get faster... hahah Oh man!! Elder Miller is in the same ward as Mason! Have him tell Miller I say hey! Yes mom, Clark was a Zone Leader later yes but when I was with him he was my DL
Well to start, Juan did get baptized on thursday!!! :) and my what a crazy day that was. Before that Pulsipher and I had a great week! This whole week we as a district were trying really hard to reach something called "the standard of excellence". President has set up in each area key indicators and we missionaries try to reach that goal by the end of the week, The promised blessing is that we would baptized 2 people.
As a district we put aaaaloooottt of emphasis on that and we were all just going at it hard everyday. On Thursday, we hadn't made the baptismal program yet or figured out who was doing what for it. As we were working, Pulsipher and I were brainstorming who could do what. We started calling people. Literally, NO ONE was picking up their phone.....and if they did it was to tell us that they weren't going to be able to come to the baptism. I was honestly getting super frustrated because when the members need something and call us, we're always there. But when we need them... Nothing lol BUT, none the less we persisted and we eventually just asked Elder Cannell if he could give the talk on Baptism. And then the baptism happened :)
Sooo for the news..... that night, while Pulsipher was doing follow-ups with the sisters, the APs called him and asked if they could talk to me. Basically they just told me to be in McAllen at 9:30am the next day, which means.... I got called to be a District Leader! So Friday morning, I went down to McAllen with other missionaries who got called to be DL to a training. It was basically just meetings and training about the new calling and I received my District Leader binder and such things. Honently, I don't really know what to think about the whole thing haha but I can say that I am pretty excited :)
We had a cool experience happen to us the other day. We took one of the youth in our ward out with us to knock some doors and come to lessons with us. Once we were done, we took him back to his house and talked a little bit with his parents and then left. At this time, we still needed to hit our goals for the 'goal' and I think we had to just find one more person for the goal. It was almost 8 o'clock at night and we received a call from the sister's house we were just at and she told us that she was making food for us. Pulsipher told her "Ok we're going to find one person to teach and then we'll be over there". We asked her to pray for us to find one more person. So we went off and we were walking really fast. I was starving and she makes suuuuuuuper bomb food so I was determined. I told Pulsipher that if he spots someone down the street I'm gonna run to them. We walk and we find some people BBQing. We just go up and give them a card and ask if they knew anybody we should go by. Unfortunately we got nothing from them. So we just continued walking really fast just hoping for the best to find someone new. Then we hear some music playing and kids screaming and so we decided to follow it. As we were walking, Pulsipher points to a random house and so we decided to go knock it. We knock and a lady opens the door and we just started talking to her and we introduced ourselves and everything. We just asked her how her day was and just had a pretty casual conversation. We kept talking to her and after we shared Ether 12:27, she became more open to us and it started to become more like a conversation than us just throwing information at her. She accepted a baptismal date and we got a return appointment! We were super duper pumped that we just sprinted to the car. Honestly, I'm sure people had a great laugh seeing two white guys sprinting down the street for no reason if anyone saw. We got to our car and sped off to the members house. We got there and she opened the door and we asked if she really did say a prayer and she said yes. Then we told her aaaallllll about the experience. It was pretty awesome and I'm sure it really made her feel good and important too :)
A little something else cool that happened was at our regular weekly Thursday meal appointment, we had a pretty cool lesson with them. Every time we go over, before we leave, we always ask if they met anyone new that we can go by or know anybody in specific that we can go by and they always tell us no. This time we shared a scripture in Alma about when Amulek and Alma were preaching and Amluek was teaching and Alma was the second witness. Now when you read Alma 8, you learn that Amulek is kind of like a Less-Active but Alma went and "blessed his house" which strengthened Amulek to go out teaching with Alma. So we compared this story to missionary and member work. It was pretty cool because we were basically telling them how much we need their help in the work and how missionary work also involves the members. It was cool with the change of the atmosphere when I told them that we don't really have anybody we're teaching right now (which was true) and that we really, really needed their help because after the baptism for Juan, that was it. We don't have anyone else. We definitely sensed a change in their perspective and we felt like it really helped them out and helped them realize how important they are. That there is so much more they can do than just feed and that members in general have an even bigger/important purpose to them than they think. Pretty cool.
Well that is all I have for this week. We shall see what happens with transfers! But I love you all a lot and pray for you all. Keep on keepin' on and I hope everything continues to be everything.
~~Elder VanKatwyk
Below: Brownsville, TX halloween party. Obviously it's a donut bobbing contest ;-)
11/2/15
Hey hey hey!
Happy late Halloween to everyone. Hope it was a fun time for you all! So to start.... Yes transfers are already here. Can you believe it? It was definitely the fastest transfer of my mission. I'm just scared it'll get faster... hahah Oh man!! Elder Miller is in the same ward as Mason! Have him tell Miller I say hey! Yes mom, Clark was a Zone Leader later yes but when I was with him he was my DL
Well to start, Juan did get baptized on thursday!!! :) and my what a crazy day that was. Before that Pulsipher and I had a great week! This whole week we as a district were trying really hard to reach something called "the standard of excellence". President has set up in each area key indicators and we missionaries try to reach that goal by the end of the week, The promised blessing is that we would baptized 2 people.
As a district we put aaaaloooottt of emphasis on that and we were all just going at it hard everyday. On Thursday, we hadn't made the baptismal program yet or figured out who was doing what for it. As we were working, Pulsipher and I were brainstorming who could do what. We started calling people. Literally, NO ONE was picking up their phone.....and if they did it was to tell us that they weren't going to be able to come to the baptism. I was honestly getting super frustrated because when the members need something and call us, we're always there. But when we need them... Nothing lol BUT, none the less we persisted and we eventually just asked Elder Cannell if he could give the talk on Baptism. And then the baptism happened :)
Sooo for the news..... that night, while Pulsipher was doing follow-ups with the sisters, the APs called him and asked if they could talk to me. Basically they just told me to be in McAllen at 9:30am the next day, which means.... I got called to be a District Leader! So Friday morning, I went down to McAllen with other missionaries who got called to be DL to a training. It was basically just meetings and training about the new calling and I received my District Leader binder and such things. Honently, I don't really know what to think about the whole thing haha but I can say that I am pretty excited :)
We had a cool experience happen to us the other day. We took one of the youth in our ward out with us to knock some doors and come to lessons with us. Once we were done, we took him back to his house and talked a little bit with his parents and then left. At this time, we still needed to hit our goals for the 'goal' and I think we had to just find one more person for the goal. It was almost 8 o'clock at night and we received a call from the sister's house we were just at and she told us that she was making food for us. Pulsipher told her "Ok we're going to find one person to teach and then we'll be over there". We asked her to pray for us to find one more person. So we went off and we were walking really fast. I was starving and she makes suuuuuuuper bomb food so I was determined. I told Pulsipher that if he spots someone down the street I'm gonna run to them. We walk and we find some people BBQing. We just go up and give them a card and ask if they knew anybody we should go by. Unfortunately we got nothing from them. So we just continued walking really fast just hoping for the best to find someone new. Then we hear some music playing and kids screaming and so we decided to follow it. As we were walking, Pulsipher points to a random house and so we decided to go knock it. We knock and a lady opens the door and we just started talking to her and we introduced ourselves and everything. We just asked her how her day was and just had a pretty casual conversation. We kept talking to her and after we shared Ether 12:27, she became more open to us and it started to become more like a conversation than us just throwing information at her. She accepted a baptismal date and we got a return appointment! We were super duper pumped that we just sprinted to the car. Honestly, I'm sure people had a great laugh seeing two white guys sprinting down the street for no reason if anyone saw. We got to our car and sped off to the members house. We got there and she opened the door and we asked if she really did say a prayer and she said yes. Then we told her aaaallllll about the experience. It was pretty awesome and I'm sure it really made her feel good and important too :)
A little something else cool that happened was at our regular weekly Thursday meal appointment, we had a pretty cool lesson with them. Every time we go over, before we leave, we always ask if they met anyone new that we can go by or know anybody in specific that we can go by and they always tell us no. This time we shared a scripture in Alma about when Amulek and Alma were preaching and Amluek was teaching and Alma was the second witness. Now when you read Alma 8, you learn that Amulek is kind of like a Less-Active but Alma went and "blessed his house" which strengthened Amulek to go out teaching with Alma. So we compared this story to missionary and member work. It was pretty cool because we were basically telling them how much we need their help in the work and how missionary work also involves the members. It was cool with the change of the atmosphere when I told them that we don't really have anybody we're teaching right now (which was true) and that we really, really needed their help because after the baptism for Juan, that was it. We don't have anyone else. We definitely sensed a change in their perspective and we felt like it really helped them out and helped them realize how important they are. That there is so much more they can do than just feed and that members in general have an even bigger/important purpose to them than they think. Pretty cool.
Well that is all I have for this week. We shall see what happens with transfers! But I love you all a lot and pray for you all. Keep on keepin' on and I hope everything continues to be everything.
~~Elder VanKatwyk
Below: Brownsville, TX halloween party. Obviously it's a donut bobbing contest ;-)