ELDER LOGAN CHASE VAN KATWYK
WEEK #19
10/27/14
Hey howdy hey!
Man, sounds like a lot happened this past week! WOW! Alex is goin to New Jersey!?!? how does he feel about that? I'm sure he's pretty pumped none the less but I'm super glad he's finally getting out. I'm super pumped for him. So I was driving the car in Alice, because Elder Latu doesn't have a license. He only had a California ID and that was it. Hahaha ya ya ya mom. I gotta keep it original and traditional somehow with the clothes on the floor ;)
Well...... I am in a new area.....and it is the area of...........Laredo! and my area is called Del Norte. My companion is Elder Pulsipher. He's from American Fork Utah and he's two transfers older than I am. Look at that, newbees doin business! We already get along super well. We hit it off super good as soon as we saw each other for the first time haha But ya I'm pumped to be here. Especially because it's a lot of Spanish. In fact I definitely feel like it has gotten a lot better since I've been here already. The first thing I did in this new area was meet this YSA convert named Iris and that was basically it. A street contact I had in Del Norte would probably be from yesterday. We were heading to a meal appointment and this homeless guy stopped me and my comp. All he said to me was "I need help". When he stopped me, I thought he was gonna pull something on us or rob us or something. So I just told him "sorry but we gotta go somewhere" and he just kept telling me "help me out man". Then we finally asked him what he needed and he started crying in front of us saying that he was from there (pointing) and that he's homeless and he's on his way to his tree to sleep. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon to read because he said he likes to read and then I handed him a pass-along card with our name and number on it and I told him if he had questions or when he finishes the book to give us a call. I honestly felt super bad of rejecting him because not a whole lot of people stop us to talk to us. Our comp study time is the normal thing. Just talking about our plans and people and then we like fool around and act goofy or we're just getting to know each other and telling each other stories about anything.
My area is a bike area. Now, I'll throw it out there. It's killing my cyst. I've never had that much blood on my gauze before. It's hurts to bike... Like I feel like my tailbone is really bruised or it's broken. Saturday for me was the hardest day I've ever faced. Because we had no meal and set appointments, and all of our plans were falling through and it was super hot. At the same time, my leg muscles hurt super bad because of the usual workout riding my bike. I'll be honest, I struggled. I wanted to throw it all in the bag and call it done because all I ever want to do his work as hard as I can finding people and doing the work of the Lord and keeping a positive attitude, but I just couldn't. It hurts to sit down and then I shower morning and night and change my garments because blood gets all over them. Yesterday, I went home and almost cried because I was super mad and frustrated. I also felt bad because that's holding back on Elder Pulsiphers work too, but he helped me get through it and we walked for the rest of the night. I'm grateful that he's my companion and I definitely see that we were suppose to be comps. He told me to not feel bad because everything will be ok and that it is all good. But ya, the last thing I want to do is go home...not until I'm done. If you all wanna fast and pray for me, I'd appreciate that.
Despite of those challenges, I'm super pumped to be here! And I'm excited what the future holds. Love you all and pray for you all! Keep on keepin on! :)
Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #18
10/20/14
Hey everyone!
Thanks for all the encouragement and all the exciting life updates. Well, I am getting transferred. Don't know where yet so that is still to be found out. For ward council on Sunday, the Branch President asked me to give the spiritual thought since I'm leaving. I don't remember what scripture I used, but I just expressed my love for the members and told them that I was grateful to serve each and everyone of them and I told them that I did a lot of my growing as a missionary here in Alice. So now, I'm just visiting and saying my good-byes to some of the branch members here. I am excited to be transferred, as I told my district leader in follow-ups yesterday, that it's a "new experience, new adventure, and new beginning". He asked me how I felt about getting transferred. And I kinda used the analogy of being ready to live on my own. I grew up as a missionary and now I'm ready to apply everything I learned and do it myself.
ANSWERS:
1) - I don't really recall any powerful experiences with prayer other than giving priesthood blessings.
I gave a few members a blessing of health, and they're all doing fine. I especially gave one of comfort and health as well because they were going to have a big surgery for something and I remember saying that "all will be well" and that she'll be able to recover without any problems and that she'll be able to continue to help her family. And, she is doing well. She was supposed to be bed-ridden for like 6 weeks or so, but she was up and walking after like a week or two.
2) - I think my current favorite scripture would probably be the Alma 34:41 still, because it helped me a lot through my hard times and struggles.
3) - I don't really know much about my neighbors. They all keep to themselves and we've basically tried to sit down with all of them but none of them were interested. But our neighbor to the left of the house are super cool. They always say "hey" to us when they see us.
4) - Hmmmm The service opportunities I've had waaaaas doing roofing, and yard work at someone's house. Doing the yard work, I rode a riding lawn mower! hahah! :) I could ride that thing all day! So, mom, dad, if you ever wanna get one for the yard, I'll ride that thing aaaaalllll
5) - the time I've felt the spirit strongest probably was when I was teaching that one lady on the exchange with Elder Hatchett, who was having all those problems. I felt like the spirit was with me so strongly that I was able to bear testimony like I've never done before and I knew for a fact that she was feeling it too and so was Elder Hatchett. Oh and now that I think of it, I think another time when I felt the spirit really strong was when Elder Cruz and I visited this guy who's mom recently passed away and he was having a reeeaaalllyyyy hard time with it. We got this call from someone to go over there. So we did and we just comforted him the best we could. And again, when I was talking, he started crying (I guess I just make everyone cry with the spirit I don't know, humbly said...must be a gift) and I was just sharing some of my favorite scriptures and just really trying to comfort him to feel better. Long story short, he felt a lot better and he expressed his gratitude and appreciation for us coming
Well short email today :/ but, glad everything is everything with everyone and keep on keepin on!
Love you all and pray for you all
Elder VanKatwyk
WEEK #17
10/14/14
Hey everybody!
Man what a week for you all and thank you all so much for the birthday wishes!!! YOU SAW ELDER WILSON!!! YESSSS!!!!! I miss that guy!!!! He was actually in my MTC zone but ya that guy was great!!! I'm pumped you saw him! :) Tell him I say 'hey' next time you see him! Man, sounds like Stake Conference was awesome! They sure sounded like awesome talks. I always loved listening to Pedersen and Bennett. Woohoo for Sister Blair!!!! That's super awesome!!!! I wish her all the best!!!
Well, so let's start with last week. My companion and I had a really rough time last week (I know right? finally had a discouraging moment in my mission). And we were just a little off with each other. Not that there was contention but we were both quiet with our problems. I was just feeling super down and discouraged (for the first time actually) because one of my goals for Alice was to some how get enough people to turn the branch into a ward. I kept remembering our branch president saying to me and my companion one time that our branch was really struggling. I felt super upset and discouraged because I felt like I was trying as hard as I could to help out and make a difference and help the branch grow but it just wasn't working. On top of that, somebody told a member, who then told us, that they were upset that we haven't gone and visited them in a long time (because they just had kidney stone surgery) and then there's a lot of problems with some of the other members so we're trying our best to have them keep coming to church, and then all the rest of everyone else here in Alice are inactive. PLUS trying to find those people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach. And then feeling like I'm so behind in my knowledge of the Gospel and my Spanish. I was really having a hard time, literally to the point where I was so upset and discouraged, that I wanted to give up. I just felt so overwhelmed because I felt that there was sooooooo much I wanted to do and that i felt like I needed to do and accomplish in soooooo short amount of time. My companion and I planned for the week individually and then later that day we had blitz's with the ZL's and they definitely knew that something was wrong with the both of us.
Long story short, it helped both of us a ton. Elder Shumway and I talked about everything and he was helping me out giving me guidance and Elder Chavez was with Elder Latu. Once the blitz was done, Elder Latu and I had comp inventory and talked about everything that was wrong with us. It helped soooooo much. He was apparently frustrated and upset at himself because of his short-temper and with the kind of missionary he's been this transfer. He was also discouraged because he wondered what I would take away from this companionship. We both had a really heartfelt inventory as we discussed our goals and what our individual problems were. One of my personal goals I put down was to "help and serve my companion". I told him that whenever he gets mad, he doesn't have to shut me away. I told him I loved him and that he's my best friend. I also told him that if he ever needed anything or if he needed ears to listen, I'd be those ears, or I'd be there whenever he needed me. And then he also talked to me about what Elder Chavez told him on his blitz and everything like that. Anyways, everything is so much better now...thank goodness.
A spiritual experience/tender mercy actually happened on Sunday.......
Ever since I got here, we had this half investigator, who's name is Marc. He told me one time that he accepted and believes everything, it was just the fact of coming to church. When I was with Elder Field, he talked about dropping him because he was never coming to church, but I kept telling him we shouldn't. Recently he had surgery and is now recovering. We visited him quite often last week, just to check up on him and see how he's doing and talked to him about coming to church. Sunday morning we texted him to see how it was looking for him to come to church aaaand...... He texted back... "I'm getting dressed right now"..... LET"S GOOOO!!!!!!!!! I'VE BEEN WAITING STINKING THREE MONTHS FOR THAT TO HAPPEN!!!!!! I was so pumped I was going insane!!!! hahaha Anyways, so he shows up to church with a member (Brother Barnes, who's his good friend) and he actually came to our Gospel Principals class and was our only investigator. Marc left to take pain medication so we asked Bro Barnes what lesson he thought Marc needed. Bro Barnes actually basically taught "The Signs Of the Second Coming" because he felt that Marc is a procrastinator. So that was suuuuuper good. Then, we taught priesthood also which was "Be in the World but not of the world". After the lesson, we didn't get to ask Marc how he liked church so we texted Bro Barnes. Brother Barnes told us that Marc loved church and that he's super happy and wants to come next week. AND said that he wants to go on a mission also!!!!! BOOM BABYY!!!!
Ida is doing good. She actually just got a new job so we keep missing her. That's why we haven't taught her in a while, but we're still trying
Thanks again for all the birthday wishes everyone! I love you all and pray for you all! Just remember.... "Keep on keepin on" ;)
~~Elder VanKatwyk
PSS:
i sent him a separate email asking if he'd gotten transferred yesterday afterall. this was his response:
Nope I'm still here in Alice. Columbus day was yesterday so aaaaalllll the libraries were closed. Transfers are on the 21st though. So stay tuned for next week! scary... haha but ya and there was no P-day activity. So Elder Latu and I just slept all day really cuz we had nothing else to do haha
Sister Cardona threw me a little party though and made me a cake! :)
10/14/14
Hey everybody!
Man what a week for you all and thank you all so much for the birthday wishes!!! YOU SAW ELDER WILSON!!! YESSSS!!!!! I miss that guy!!!! He was actually in my MTC zone but ya that guy was great!!! I'm pumped you saw him! :) Tell him I say 'hey' next time you see him! Man, sounds like Stake Conference was awesome! They sure sounded like awesome talks. I always loved listening to Pedersen and Bennett. Woohoo for Sister Blair!!!! That's super awesome!!!! I wish her all the best!!!
Well, so let's start with last week. My companion and I had a really rough time last week (I know right? finally had a discouraging moment in my mission). And we were just a little off with each other. Not that there was contention but we were both quiet with our problems. I was just feeling super down and discouraged (for the first time actually) because one of my goals for Alice was to some how get enough people to turn the branch into a ward. I kept remembering our branch president saying to me and my companion one time that our branch was really struggling. I felt super upset and discouraged because I felt like I was trying as hard as I could to help out and make a difference and help the branch grow but it just wasn't working. On top of that, somebody told a member, who then told us, that they were upset that we haven't gone and visited them in a long time (because they just had kidney stone surgery) and then there's a lot of problems with some of the other members so we're trying our best to have them keep coming to church, and then all the rest of everyone else here in Alice are inactive. PLUS trying to find those people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach. And then feeling like I'm so behind in my knowledge of the Gospel and my Spanish. I was really having a hard time, literally to the point where I was so upset and discouraged, that I wanted to give up. I just felt so overwhelmed because I felt that there was sooooooo much I wanted to do and that i felt like I needed to do and accomplish in soooooo short amount of time. My companion and I planned for the week individually and then later that day we had blitz's with the ZL's and they definitely knew that something was wrong with the both of us.
Long story short, it helped both of us a ton. Elder Shumway and I talked about everything and he was helping me out giving me guidance and Elder Chavez was with Elder Latu. Once the blitz was done, Elder Latu and I had comp inventory and talked about everything that was wrong with us. It helped soooooo much. He was apparently frustrated and upset at himself because of his short-temper and with the kind of missionary he's been this transfer. He was also discouraged because he wondered what I would take away from this companionship. We both had a really heartfelt inventory as we discussed our goals and what our individual problems were. One of my personal goals I put down was to "help and serve my companion". I told him that whenever he gets mad, he doesn't have to shut me away. I told him I loved him and that he's my best friend. I also told him that if he ever needed anything or if he needed ears to listen, I'd be those ears, or I'd be there whenever he needed me. And then he also talked to me about what Elder Chavez told him on his blitz and everything like that. Anyways, everything is so much better now...thank goodness.
A spiritual experience/tender mercy actually happened on Sunday.......
Ever since I got here, we had this half investigator, who's name is Marc. He told me one time that he accepted and believes everything, it was just the fact of coming to church. When I was with Elder Field, he talked about dropping him because he was never coming to church, but I kept telling him we shouldn't. Recently he had surgery and is now recovering. We visited him quite often last week, just to check up on him and see how he's doing and talked to him about coming to church. Sunday morning we texted him to see how it was looking for him to come to church aaaand...... He texted back... "I'm getting dressed right now"..... LET"S GOOOO!!!!!!!!! I'VE BEEN WAITING STINKING THREE MONTHS FOR THAT TO HAPPEN!!!!!! I was so pumped I was going insane!!!! hahaha Anyways, so he shows up to church with a member (Brother Barnes, who's his good friend) and he actually came to our Gospel Principals class and was our only investigator. Marc left to take pain medication so we asked Bro Barnes what lesson he thought Marc needed. Bro Barnes actually basically taught "The Signs Of the Second Coming" because he felt that Marc is a procrastinator. So that was suuuuuper good. Then, we taught priesthood also which was "Be in the World but not of the world". After the lesson, we didn't get to ask Marc how he liked church so we texted Bro Barnes. Brother Barnes told us that Marc loved church and that he's super happy and wants to come next week. AND said that he wants to go on a mission also!!!!! BOOM BABYY!!!!
Ida is doing good. She actually just got a new job so we keep missing her. That's why we haven't taught her in a while, but we're still trying
Thanks again for all the birthday wishes everyone! I love you all and pray for you all! Just remember.... "Keep on keepin on" ;)
~~Elder VanKatwyk
PSS:
i sent him a separate email asking if he'd gotten transferred yesterday afterall. this was his response:
Nope I'm still here in Alice. Columbus day was yesterday so aaaaalllll the libraries were closed. Transfers are on the 21st though. So stay tuned for next week! scary... haha but ya and there was no P-day activity. So Elder Latu and I just slept all day really cuz we had nothing else to do haha
Sister Cardona threw me a little party though and made me a cake! :)
WEEK #16
10/6/14
Hey everyone! :)
This is actually a 7 week transfer so transfers are on the 21st. So I still got two weeks to do wonders here :) I did get the birthday box! I was super pumped when I got it because I was not expecting it. It was fun. Wow sounds like Ness and Mace had quite the weekend. Speaking of which...... HAPPYY BURFDAY TO ALLISON Y VANESSA!! Woop woop! One year older and wiser too! ;)
Anyways, what a great conference right!? Man almost all of them threw down! haha Glad Morgan and Alice are good. I miss my kitty :( That sounded like a fun little date! "Life could be a Dream" is in the cars soundtrack. I was singing that song in my head as I was reading it haha Ya once they announced the number of full-time missionaries was 88,000, at first I was like, "oh wow that's alot" and then it hit me, "hoooooly cooowww. I'm one of those 88,000......." and I was just struck for a second hahah
Logan's answers to weekly questions:
***I was able to see all of the conference sessions here in the Alice chapel.
***My favorite talk was Bednar, Uchdoft (first sessions) and Andersons :)
***A favorite area of my mission. I don't know whether it's area's I've served in or areas I've been too or an area that's most popular. But I do like Corpus. Suuuper pretty. I actually feel like I'm home with all the skyscrapers and beach and everything.
***The scariest thing that has happened so far, would probably be huuuuge vicious dogs chasing after us and barking as we're walking. This stupid little dog was barking at us and we stopped and talked to the people in the house (who were yelling at us anyways) and the little dog snagged my pant leg. I almost dropped kicked the little dog but the owners woulda seen me.... hahah Spanish is great! I pretty much have it down.
***The only problem I'm having is understanding what people are saying when they're speaking. But I can tell it's defnitely improving more and more. Once I have that down.... Boom, it's game time.
***Hmmmm the sister missioanry that seems to "have it all together".... well there is only Sister Moody and Sister Acosta in my district. So I think both of them are doing a fine job. They seem like they know how to work and they give good feed back when I role play with them. Sister Moody and I sorta help each other out when we role-play together since we're both greenies.
***Idas doing good. We're still trying to get her to understand the importance of coming to church. We tried to get her to come watch General Conference with us and she just kept giving us the "I dont know" answer. She's still drinking coffee. So we asked her if she likes Hot Chocolate. and she said ya, so admittedly, (when we left the house it was a little after 9 and we had to be in) but we went to the store right after Ida's and I bought Hot Chocolate for her (Don't worry I repented) and then we gave it to her the next day. We're gonna have a BBQ with her on Saturday so that should be fun. She makes food for people (I dunno why) but I told her "we can come help out with that!" and then somehow we decided on doing a BBQ hahah So we'll see how that goes :)
***Oh here's a car story hahaha this ones ridiculous..... So after a role-play meeting with the district. It poured suuuuuuuper hard so the ZLs called us and told us to go to their house so we didn't have to drive in the rain. So all the Elders went over there and there wasn't any room to park at the time. So Elder Latu just said for me to go park up by their door on their weedy "lawn". And so we had a little offroading experience for 2 seconds and then.......we got stuck in the mud...... Everyone thought it was hilarious and were taking pictures of our car. Once the rain died down, a few of the Elders helped push the car out of the mud hahah ooopps.
***Hmmmmm my favorite role play incident..... I don't know really. Too be honest, I was really bitter about role-playing for a while but now I've softened up to it. So now I'll make some good experiences hahah
But ya that's what I got for this week. Keep on keepin' on and glad everything is everything!
Pray for and love you all!
Elder VanKatwyk
PS I have pictures to send but after I loaded them onto the computer I couldn't see them. :-(