IN TEXAS

How's life in Idaho? send me the latest scoop. I'm pretty curious. I hope you're all doing really well. Everything is fantastic here.

So the first night here in San Antonio, we went down to the Alamo and placed copies of The Book of Mormon. It was pretty awesome. The weirdest part is that I got to be very confident and good at talking to people in the MTC, even people who acted super real, but as soon as I got here and started to taking to people who really need it and really matter, I got super nervous. I'm way better by now though. If you haven't figured it out yet, my P-day is Monday here. 

On Thursday we got our companions and our first assignments. My trainer is Elder Lish. He's pretty cool, and we have his old companion with us until Wednesday when He goes home. Elder Lish is the district leader as well.  We are both Spanish-speaking elders, but we're in an English area, so it's really hard to keep up on the Spanish. I'm doing alright, though. My first street contact in my area was actually in Spanish. She would've taken a Book of Mormon, except I only had English with me, so I just left her a pass along card and referred her to th Spanish elders in the area. Since then I always carry Spanish and English, and I have had the opportunity to use both. There are also some members in our wards that speak Spanish, so I can practice with them. We cover three wards here, and it is the wealthiest area in the whole mission. the worst aparments here push two thousand dollars a month, and almost every community is gated. It's really hard to find people, but when it happens, they are solid.

One of the things I like most about Texas is that almost everyone is really nice. Much nicer than in California... However, there are still very rude people every now and again. They especially don't like us, which is silly because all we do is come and ask if we can help them in any way. Even if they don't want to listen to our message we are always happy to just do service for them. It's kinda silly.

It has been way awesome to see miracles every day, and feel the Spirit guide us to the things that God wants us to do. The kinda frustrating part is that I know it could happen even more, but not everyon in the group wants to be totally obedient to all of the rules... and people who have more experience or are in authority or about to go home are not very open to corrective suggestions. That's okay kinda.. but I need to be a little more forceful when I know somethng needs to be done differently but the others don't want to.

Anyways... probably the coolest little miracle I've seen so faris this: We had an appointment cancel on us, so we didn't really know what to do. We pulled over to the side of the road to pray and seek guidance. As we then looked at our area map we felt prompted to go to a certain apartment complex and check up on some old dropped investigators. While we were there we had a bunch of doors closed on us and a bunch of people not home. we got down near the bottom of the complex and were knocking on a door, when a black woman pulled up and got out of her car to put her trash in the dumpster, which was pretty close to us. We decided it was a good idea to talk to her, you know since it was three men in the dark, by the dumpster going to talk to one woman. Makes sense. Anyways, she was a little freaked out at first, but then recognized us as Mormons. She said she wasn't interested because she's "non-denominational," but her sister is Mormon and lives in the complex if we wanted to visit her. She called her to ask, and the sister said she'd like that.  We went there and found out she had moved to Texas from New Jersey about a month ago for cancer treatment, and had just had chemotherapy the day before. She was living there with her husband, son, daughter and daughter's two sons, who are all not members. The folks in New Jersey said they'd send her membership records here, but haven't yet, so nobody knew she was here, and she hasn't had the energy or strength to go out and find someone. Her husband can't walk, we didn't figure out exactly what was wrong, but he was sitting there on the couch with some big things on his feet and a catheter. He has some serious depression and is losing his voice because he very rarely uses it now... The son was asleep, but the daughter was there, and wants to take the discussions because she remembers when the two white boy missionaries knocked on their door in the projects. Good story. Anyways, we got all of the woman's info. (her name is Kathy) so we could pull her records here, and shared a spiritual message with them. It turns out they picked up and moved so fast that she forgot her scriptures, so we left some there for the family. At the end we gave Kathy a blessing and it was way awesome. The husband and daughter wanted one too after that, so we gave three blessings in that apartment. They were all really awesome, and I know that family is going to have a lot of help and support and miracles over the next little while.  Kathy insisted we come back tomorrow for some fried chicken.  That made my day. It was awesome to see how the lord puts His servants where they will be able to succor his children. The church is true.

Okay, so my address is:

Elder Brock Katzakian
20211 Huebner Road #915
San Antonio, TX 78258

Anything that's been sent to the mission office I won't get until the next big meeting at Christmas, so the apartment is the best place to send things, unless it's close to transfers. I'll let y'all know when those are coming up (they are every six weeks, and it's the only time that I'm guaranteed to have a big meeting where I'll get the stuff that's at the mission office). I did get the blankets, though. Thank you :) I know packages can be sent to the apartment too. I don't know if there are any mission rules or anything about where they are supposed to go or whatever, but I do know that the apartment office is able to recieve them.

There is so much awesome stuff happening all over the place here and so many awesome people that I can't even come close to sharing all of it, so I'll just try and do the best ones. I've got to go now because there is a lot to do today. Oh, by the way, I know why missionaries get fat. We sit in the car all day, then peole feed us ridiculous piles of food. We had three desserts yesterday. Three. And people get all excited to give it to you, so you can't say no. And since there are so many members in this area, they always have our dinner, and it's always something special, and there is always some ridiculous dessert... every day. We have three lunches scheduled for tomorrow, and a dinner. I don't know what to do. and most of the missionaries don't want to get up early to exercise, and don't want to run. We're not supposed to get up witout our companion and I definitely can't run without them. I'm doomed. It's okay though. This is way more important than my health stuff. I'll just deal for two years, then I can do what I want. I'm just a little worried about all the sugar because I was starting to have some issues before I left and now I can't really get away.. but yeah. Love you all :)

Elder Katzakian's first member dinner in San Antonio

(I love that we have been able to get more updates in the last few days than we have the last 3 months!!)

Hello Parents of Elder Katzakian (can't remember how it's spelled!),

We just fed your son tonight and were pleasantly surprised to be his first meal at a member's house! I think we fed him well...after eating it, he said, "I vote YES to all of this food." It's always fun to have a "greenie" over and we never would've guessed it had we not asked him when he got here.

I just thought you'd like to know that he's in good hands and has a great companion, Elder Lish. They're in a threesome right now with Elder Phillips who goes home next Wednesday. This area of San Antonio is awesome, and we know the elders will continue to touch the hearts of the people around here.

Living up to the stereotype, "Texas pride" is already being fed to your son :) We informed him that we have the absolute best ice cream here (Blue Bell) and gave him his first taste of it. He talked about his mother's love of peppermint ice cream and how the freezer will be full of it this time of year. Well, I believe we honest to goodness have the best peppermint ice cream here and you've got to give it a try if you come pick him up in two years! I'll make sure he tries some of that flavor soon! :) Thanks for sharing your son with us and rest assured he's got a great trainer in Elder Lish. They'll do good things together. Enjoy the pictures!

He is in Texas!

(this is an email and picture we received from Sister Jones.  She is the Mission Presidents' wife.)

Dear Missionary families,

Your wonderful sons and daughters have arrived safely in San Antonio, Texas!  Their plane arrived on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.  President Jones and I and our assistants were there to greet them as they came down the escalator. They were enthusiastic and happy to be here!   We loaded the mission vans and returned to the mission home for lunch and an orientation.  At around 5pm they headed to the Alamo!  After learning a little about the history, they were divided into companionships and went out, Book of Mormon in hand, to make their first contacts as Texas missionaries.

Later, we returned to the mission home for dinner and a slide show. Tomorrow we will meet in the morning for more orientation and then your son or daughter will find out where they will be serving and who their companion will be.  We have excellent trainers for each of your sons and daughters and we know they are where they are supposed to be.  We will be sending a letter to you soon with a picture and more details and their address.  P-day is on Monday so you should expect an email from your missionary.  

Thank you for sending these well prepared, extraordinary young men and women to serve with us!  We'll take good care of them.

Love,

Sister Suzanne Jones

Week #9- Done! with the beginning

So I pretty much finished packing everything I'm not using to get ready in the morning by now. I'm ready to roll out to Texas. Fly, rather... but yeah. I feel pretty ready. I taught a lesson on how to teach part of the second lesson to a new advanced class, in Spanish, who're all from Mexico and Colombia and stuff, and they understood everything I said and it it all flowed pretty well. I can express just about anything I need to. I'm a lot better at speaking than writing, though... but that's okay, it'll come. Haha I know that I'm all confident in my Spanish now and the first person I talk to is just going to laugh at me because I'm such a gringo, but that's okay.

 

So we had the chance to teach Daniel Limon two more times this week and it went really well. Basically he kinda said we were probably right but he didn't feel it, an we pushed Him a little and he said he'd be more open and try the things we were suggeting, and that it'd better be worth it. The second one he was a lot better and he was sad to see us go. He told us that we'd been really good friends to him and to do the same to everyone we meet at th places we are going. Elder Jones left this morning, by the way. So I've been tagging along with another companionship today. We haven't gone many places, though, because it's our preparation day...

 

We got to watch the first presidency Chrismas devotional on sunday and it was so good. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is amazing. If you didn't see it, watch it on lds.org. Totally worht it.

 

So yeah, there is a very very very very slight chance that I will be able to call home very briefly in the airport just to let the fam know I'm getting on the plane... but I don't know. This last week has been crazy. It's been even more time warpish than the rest of the time here. I can't tell if it's gon super slow or super fast. I'm going to be surprised if I sleep tonight.

 

I'm excited to go to San Antonio. I know that I have been called by a prophet of God to be a witness of His truth, and I feel geat joy every morning when I put the Savior's name over my heart.  I am going to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Salvation as i stumble over Spanish words that I can't pronounce haha.

 

Love you all, thanks for all the help and support. Next one will be from the lone star state.

Week #8

So on Tuesday night, Elder Malm spoke to us. He was in the last conference. He's pretty awesome. Look him up.  He basically talked about how everyone who's here in the world now said yes to the plan before, and how we're doing God's work, so where ae the limit's? It was pretty awesome.

 

On Thanksgiving, Elder Holland came with his family to speak to us. It was pretty awesome. Elder Holland is probably my most favorite apostle ever. Anyways, he said that this Thanksgiving his family would be our family and had all his grandchildren sing for us and his wife talk and he kept the last twenty minutes or so to talk to us. He also, at the beginning, had four missionaries who had really intense stories of family struggles, or political issues in their home country trying to get on their mission, and one who has cystic fibrosis serving now in the referral center here get up and bear their testimonies. It was pretty sweet. He also had us think about how there are so many young children who look at missionaries and cannot fathom that they are anything less than perfect, that they are anything less than all the great missionaries in the scriptures wrapped up into one. He told us to think of them whenever we are tempted to be anything less than the very best we can possibly be, to live worthy of that trust.

 

He told us three things that he was grateful for this thanksgiving: He is grateful that the Godhead knows us each individually and personally, by our first names. They know our likes and dislikes, and our needs and our wants. Pretty awesome stuff. Look it up haha. He also is grateful for the compassion that the Godhead has always had on the poor. You gain a remission of your sins by being obedient to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and you retain it by imparting of your bounty to those less fortunate (see king benjamin's sermon, alma 34, and like a bajillion other scriptures. I just stopped looking because there were so many. Also an apostle said it, so that's already scripture.). He also said he is grateful that God was able to offer his son to atone for our sins and pains alone. As alone as we ever feel, and as hard as it ever gets, we always have someone, even if it's just one friend, but Christ did it alone. Follow the patten of His life as everyone falls away from Him, his family, Jews and gentiles (as symbolized by the leaders who condemn him), his apostles (one of whom betrays Him, and the chief one even denies knowing Him), and eventually even the common man on the street who does not know Him, but cries out for Him to be crucified.Throughout His life he said the Father would always be with Him because He always did that which pleased the Father. Then, at the end, as He hangs on the cross, even His father has to let him hold the weight alone, hence his cry, which was so important that it was put in the bible in the original aramaic.  We can't understand it without the translation that was put with it, but the translators left it there... It was probably the single most pained cry in the history of the world. It doesn't mean the Father was gone, rather He was probably right there, but he had to let Christ do it alone so that we wouldn''t have to. And that is intense. Thinking about that, look at D+C 133. Changed my life. 

 

So yeah, gotta go now. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving. I know mine was good. If there's anybody who is hesitating to use dear elder because they'd rather send it by hand, it's okay to use it now because I'll only have it for another week, then I'm pretty sure dear elder charges a stamp and mails it to me, so it'd be the same. Use dearelder before that. In a week and a day I'll be in Texas. I forgot my address so I'll send it by hand.

Love y'all

Week #7

Alright, so apparently there's a huge blizzard coming in. Haha that's really funny because I'm totally coatless. Though I do have gloves and a scarf as of today. Thanks family :) I appreciate the things people have sent very much.  Also I got some more good pictures that I'll have printed and sent. Anyways...

 

Last Tuesday our speaker was Elder Pearson of the Seventy, and it was really funny because basically his whole talk was rewording of my study journal for the week before. So I have a lot of doubles on notes now. Apparently it was important. He talked about becoming a true disciple of Christ and following the Spirit. His closing thingy was "A disciple of Christ is...? If I am becoming a disciple of christ, I am no longer...?" Good stuff. Also I suggest that everybody look up a talk called "The Armor of God isn't Comfy" by Hank Smith. He's an EFY speaker and a genius. After listening to that, you should study the armor of god in-depth and think about the extensive metaphor that can be made if you thing of life as a battle. It's pretty awesome. I can't actually listen to the tak here, but I've listened to it so many times that I know it really well... So yeah.

 

We alo got to teach Daniel Limon again. We went in with the intent to try and steer the lesson towards a baptismal commitment. It was a great plan. Anyways, when we got there, he told us he had read some more. Awesome! He read all of the book of Moroni. The chapter that stuck out the most to him was chapter 9. Less awesome... it's the chapter where Mormon is lamenting the fallen states of the Nephites and Lamanites, and describes their abominations. So yeah, the conclusion he came to was that he didn't want the book to be true, because if it was, that meant that it is possible for a people who saw God, who were a great and delihtsome civilization, to fall into the vilest of wickedness in a relatively short time. That mostly killed the plan we had. The lesson ended up bein mostly us bearing our testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, and that even though it does have some sad scary things in it, it can bring you closer to God, and make you happier than anything else. We also explained that it is a warning, and that that is why we do what we do. The people fell that far because they forgot their God. We are missionaries because we don't want people to forget, we don't want that to happen again. He did end up praying at the end, too. Nothing too special, but it was a prayer.  He said he'd keep reading, and pray about whether it was true. So I suppose it did go well.

 

Happy Thanksgiving all :) Looks like it'll be a pretty cold one.  Hopefully the food will be awesome, though. I'm not really sure what to expect here, haha.

 

Happy Birthday Grandma B!

 

Happy birthday dad! How's everything going in Idaho? I heard the blizzard hit there too. You've gotta tell me what you do for your birthday. It had better be super awesome. I would have written you in spanish, but I don't think I can do it fast enough... I do appreciate your letters though :) The only thing is that you used a gerund as a noun, but in spanish it's the infinitive. So yeah. Anything I could send you for your birthday? haha I love you. Thanks for all your help and support in getting and keeping me here.  

 

Alright folks, that's it for this week. Join us next time, on Elder Katzakian's blog!

Week #6

Last Tuesday Elder Bednar came to talk to us. It was pretty awesome. We got four apostles in a row and I'm hoping for a fifth tonight.  So Elder Bednar and his wife pretty much proved to me that a sense of humor is part of perfection. She spoke first and poked a little fun at him, then, during the beginning of his talk she actually got up and squezzed in front of him to get at the microphone to tease him about his age because of something he said and made him blush in front of the whole MTC. It was awesome. He said some funny stuff too, but I can't really remember specifically what now, and I was busy writing down the stuff that was more important than the jokes. Anyways, he talked about doctrine, principles and applications. Doctrines being what answers the question why, principles what, and applications how. He didn't really give any super specific examples, because the point of the talk was that we put in the effort to learn, rather than just being handed all the answers. so yeah. One good example is home teaching. Lot's of people try silly things to enforce the principle of home teaching, such as baking a cake on the first of the month for your home teachers. If they come early, they get good cake, if they come on the last of the month it is moldy. That's just a gimmicky application and won't really improve home teaching at all. It'd be more effective to get the biggest, ugliest, scariest guy in the ward (preferably an ex-marine) and put him in front of the Elders quorum to say that everyone had better do their home teaching, or he'll come get them.  Even then it would be useless. What would happen when he moved out of the ward, or died, or left for any other reason? Not home teaching. The answer is in the doctrine; the men must learn why they do it, and truly believe it for the home teaching to happen. There are a few hings it could be brought back to, but the most obvious would be our baptismal covenants, or the oath and covenant of the priesthood. To fulfill either, home teaching must be done. To have the motivation to do it, one must thoroughly understand and believe that. You can do a lot of good things in your life, and even know why you did them, but if you don't truly believe them, if you don't truly become those things, then it won't do you any good.  Not to say the applications are useless though. They are the action, they are the doing, but the base lies in the doctrines. If there's no real reason to do it, it won't get done.

 

We also had the opportunity to meet with Daniel again. It didn't go as well as last week. I think it was because we went in with too much of a plan, we didn't leave ourselves as much room to change things up according to the Spirit.  Apparently we weren't as clear as we thought, and apparently we misunderstood him a little bit. He said he wasn't really looking for God and he asked us why we were really there. We told him basically that we had experienced the joy that the gospel can bring and that we love him and want him to have it too, and that he may not be looking for God, but he is looking for something, looking for more meaning, and we're there to show him that that search leads to God. He thanked us for our concern. He actually did read the Book of Mormon a little, but not what we left for him. He ended up reading the first chapter in Ether, which is okay. He did get some stuff about prayer out of it, and we talked abot that a little. He said he'd keep reading, and we asked if he had any questions or anything we could direct him to in the scriptures, and I felt prompted to also leave the option of freely choosing himself what he'd read, without any direction from us, and he chose that one. I trust that he'll come across something that will help him, that we can discuss and make some progress with next time. So yeah, I'll let you know what happens next week.

 

Until then, adios.