April 23rd, 2012

What’s up everyone!

Sorry this is a little late today,  we had a zone activity for p-day today and it was in a place called Mochito which is about an hour and a half away.  We went to this place called "Arca de Cristo" it was really cool.  Some Christian guy from the states put it here.  It is a replica of the tomb of Christ and a place where they have 3 crosses set up.  Then there is just a big open field, so we played some volleyball and of course we had to play some soccer and we fried some chicken there.  It was a neat place and really fun for the zone.  It also had a really good view of "Lago de Yojoa", the big lake in Honduras.  This week was good.  We had changes on Wednesday and I really like the new zone.  We have some good missionaries.  My new companion’s name is Elder Guzman.  He is a cool guy and is from Guatemala.  He only has 2 changes left so he´ll probably finish here.  He is 26 years old, the youngest in his family and just his mom and sister are members.  He speaks English well.  He has been a ZL for a while so he has great experience.  He is a great companion.  For our area, we have some good things going now.  One of our families is doing well and we put a date to get married for this weekend but that fell through.  The dad hasn´t been there lately and I guess he just has a really strong attitude and everything has to be his way.  So his wife told us that she will not marry him until he changes.  So we’re going to be working with him because they are really a great family.  But we were able to put a date with the another family.  We just need to keep working with them so that they understand the doctrine more.  They have the date to get married this next week on the 4th and baptized on the 5th but she didn´t go to church on Sunday so we´ll see what she says.  The biggest problem here is getting people to get married.  They always have the excuses like they need to get to know each other better, when they already have been together for like 20 years.  It´s kind of funny.  But this family said that they would get married the first time we talked about it.  It was pretty cool, so pray hard for them.  We had 10 at church on Sunday but most of them have some things in their life right now that they need to change.  So we just need to keep focusing on them.  Dad, you said that you were going to talk next week on the blessings of work.  I don’t know his name but he´s in the presidency of the 70.  He spoke to Central America members about that and the blessings that come financially when we are obedient and keep the commandments.  He used a lot of the scriptures that state: and if ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land.  Also, I agree and think that you should line Paige and Ben up.  Thanks for all of the emails and love and support.  It really means a lot and thanks for all the pics and emails Erika and KK.

I Miss and Love You All!!!!

Con Amor

Elder Kapple

April 16th, 2012

Hello -  sorry I had a big e-mail written and then I had to exit out and it got erased. But this week was good.  The weeks go by so fast and I really never feel like there is anytime to do anything.  We always have meetings, divisions, paper work to fill out, and every once in awhile we get to study.  But I’m enjoying it and I like staying busy.  On Tuesday of this week we had a ZL leadership meeting and it went really well.  Pres Veirs talked about how we need to fix the problems in our zones and districts from the get go; we can't wait and if we do they will just grow and get bigger.  Then we did divisions two times this week.  First Elder Johnson left and I was in my area with Elder Barba.  He's a new missionary from Mexico.  The point of divisions is to train the missionaries so after all of the appointments we stop and talk about what we did well or bad and what we can do to get better.  Then I went to Las Brisas with Elder Castillo.  He has 6 months left but he just barely came to this mission.  He had to go home early from another mission. He told me all that happened and he was kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he is a really good missionary and we had a good time working together. We talked a lot at night and it was really a good spiritual talk.  It was something that benefited me too and I hope that I helped him.  Elder Johnson and I have been really worried about our area because we haven't been having to much success so we fasted this Sunday and we saw some miracles.  We had the parents in a family of 4 committ to getting married and baptized in 2 weeks.  They weren't able to go to church this Sunday because a family member died.  We were also blessed with the people that went to church. We had 11 investigators there and they are a lot of great people.  So we really need to start focusing on them so that we can get them progressing.  Fasting is a really big blessing here in the mission.  Sometimes it's hard with the heat and all of the walking but we can really see the blessings for doing it.  And as you all know, we were zona celestial so we went and played a little soccer in San Pedro and then we went to eat lunch with Sister and Pres. Veirs and it was so good.  I think it was the first time that I have eaten spaghetti in Honduras that wasn't made with ketchup sauce and man was it good.  Elder Johnson and I went to go get our new suits too but they have to do a few ajustments so they won’t be done until next week.  Sorry this email is kind of short but it all got erased earlier plus I’m really starting to forget how to spell in English. 

Elder Johnson has a transfer so I will have a new comp this next week.  Elder Johnson is a great guy and we had a lot of fun together.  A lot of areas have changes so we will have a lot of new missionaries coming into the zone.  Sorry, my computer is being dumb and I can't attach the files today. Until next week.

I Love You All!!!

Elder Kapple

April 9th, 2012

What’s up family? How is everyone doing? Things are good here and a little hot too.  Semana Santa or Easter was just great - minus the part that everyone leaves for Semana Santa and goes to the beach or leaves and does something else so the week was a longer one for that reason.  We would go out and work and just be sweating to death with no one in the streets to talk to.  Semana Santa is actually a really big holiday celebration here.  Most of the people don't work on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and on Friday all of the stores were closed so it was hard to find places to get water and stuff.   And of course everywhere we go the people are in church doing their normal worships.  The strong church here is the Evangelical Church and everyone of the Evangelical type faith has a different way to  worship.  Here in Villanueva there are so many of them and every night this last week we heard them and their preaching - just yelling out that Christ lives - it is actually kind of funny the way they do it.  People here do have a strong belief in Christ but really don’t understand what the purpose of His life really was and what our purpose is in this life too.  That is one thing that the restored gospel gives us is the fullness of Christ’s doctrine so that we really do understand more of our purpose  here and what we are suppose to be doing.  There are a lot of people that have some weird beliefs and it's sad because most of the people that have these different beliefs are the ones that don't accept the gospel truths that we are here to bring them.  Here in Villanueva, we have encountered a lot of different types of believers.  But this week was kind of slow because so few people were around to speak with.  We are having some troubles in our area right now.  We are teaching a lot of families but none of them are really progressing right now.  We’re still working with the Pineda Ramirez family but the dad wasn't able to go to church on Sunday.  They are an awesome family but we need him to do a little more of his part.  We also had a new family at church and they seemed to really like it.  We have an appointment with them tonight so we'll see what they say.   Keep praying for our investigators.  We really need a little extra help right now.  The zone is doing well though and I know we'll have more success this month.  We got kind of lucky because the mission has been slacking a little bit and we ended up winning Zona Celestial with only 23 baptisms so we will be privileged with the opportunity to eat with President and Sister Veirs next Monday.  Thank you so much for everything that you all do for me.  It means so much.

I Miss and Love You All!!!

Elder Kapple



P.S. I got my shoes. They will probably be the most expensive shoes here in Honduras – haha, but thanks -  you guys are the best.

April 2nd, 2012

What’s up family and friends -  how are you?

Things are just fine and dandy here in Villanueva – well, everything minus the heat because man it is hot.  Every time I leave the house I feel like I am being cooked.  We are pretty lucky in the house here where we have a nice AC unit in our room so at night when we get home that is the first thing that we do is turn that bad boy on.  Well, this week was a fast one.  We had to go to San Pedro 3 times this week.  First off, on Monday for mine and Elder Johnson’s shopping spree;  - we are going to look good in our new suits haha.  Then on Tuesday we had interviews.  They’re a little bit different with being zone leaders.  We go first and have an interview together to talk about the zone and stuff then we have our personal interviews.  President Veirs is awesome.  I just wish I could have an hour of personal time with him just to talk and learn from him.  Then on Wednesday we went back to get a Partida (a paper that is needed to get people married here in Honduras).  Then on Thursday we did divisions.  Elder Contreras (we came together to the mission), came with me and Elder Johnson went to his area with his comp.  We have been working with him to try to help him out.  He is a great missionary but just needs to take more initiative with his district.  Then it was general conference and it was awesome.  We lucked out as "Gringos" and we were able to watch it in English.  It's just not the same in Spanish.  I can understand it and everything but the spirit definitely speaks better in your own language,  so I was pretty happy to watch it in English.  I really enjoyed conference and I learned a lot.  There are always a lot of different topics but they all seem to help in some way or another.  From how to raise children, covenants and priesthood responsibilities, holding grudges and forgiveness, - there was just a wide range of things and they were all great.  I need to read back over my notes and put these things in practice.  We did have some good numbers at church too.  We had 8 investigators come.  The best one was definitely the Pineda Ramirez family.  This is the family that didn't go last week because Elder Johnson and I like to open our mouths and joke too much.  But we passed by in the morning to remind them and they said that they were going to go so we were there waiting at the door until about 10:10 and they never showed up so we were pretty bummed.  But then after we walked out to say goodbye to everyone and his mom (a member) came running up to us saying "Vinieron, Vinieron" or they came, they came.  So we were pretty excited and you can tell that they enjoyed it.  We had a great experience yesterday with an inactive family.  A family where the husband went on a mission and they were sealed in the temple but have been inactive for about 4 years now.  So we stopped by yesterday because he had told us that he was going to go.  I gave him 100 limps because he had to go to San Pedro and he promised he was going to go.  So we went and they just started giving the excuses that such person said this and all the normal stuff but we could really see the desire that they had to come back to the fold.  So after Elder Johnson had heard enough of their bad talk, he told them to stop and with tears told them to write 3 things good about all the people they had talked bad about.  We could see they started to feel bad and cry a little .  Then I gave a testimony and told them how we need them in the church here.  It was a very good experience and the spirit was really strong.  I know this family will come back.  We just need to help them along the way.

Well, thanks for all that you do for me and all of the love and support.

I Miss and Love You All!!!!

                                                                        Elder Kapple