July 4, 2011

Adonis and Elder Kapple



Beach Front Activity



Elder Kapple, Miligan, Jones, Harris

Out at Pumpkin Hill

Elder Sommer and Elder Kapple

Hola familia como estan? How is everything going? It sounds like Erika, Andrew, Todd, and Kayli just have been going on a bunch of vactions and mom and dad have been gotten stuck at home doing all of the chores-  ha-ha. Erika, that's crazy that you’re about to have your baby; are you going to name him Nathan? I hope that you have fun in Lake Powell KK, but it probably won’t be as fun as last year when we went for the senior trip - ha-ha. Mom, I got my packages; thank you so very much for sending those.  I still haven’t opened my birthday one yet.  I'll save it for my birthday.  That was terrible news about Seth Pack in Afghanistan; let me know how he is doing.  Well, this week was pretty good.  We left Monday from the island and I had the opportunity to work with the ZL’s for a day.  Then on Tuesday and Wednesday I worked with Elder Villagran.  He came at the same time that I did.  He's really cool and we had some good experiences together.  He's from Guatemala.  Then on Wednesday my new comp. came.  He's from the lovely state of Idaho in the city of Middleton which is right next to Boise.  His name is Elder Sommer.  I have only met him once before in the mision and it was my first day.  He has one change more than me.  I have been made senior comp. which also means that I'm the new branch president. Kind of crazy, I know, but as comps, we still do the same things.  He's been close to the City of San Pedro his entire mision so he was happy to come here.  A little different than me, but I like him.  He's a really nice kid and is willing to work hard. We then worked with the ZL's Wednesday night and headed for Utila Thursday morning.  So we really didn't work much on the island this week.  However, we found a really cool investigator this week named Exel.  The missionaries taught her in La Ceiba but she moved here.  We found her because we were looking for some other guy that wanted us to pass by and we contacted her when we were looking for him.  She has already recieved all the lessons and has a testimony but needs to get married but the good thing is that she already has been planning on getting married.  We have only had one appointment so we'll see how things go.  We really need to start focusing more on the members out here.  We only had 25 people at church Sunday and at the beginning of the year there were 35 to 40.  So that is one thing that we will focus on a little bit more.  President Veirs is coming out next weekend to do a conference so we’re hoping we can have a lot of people make it to that.
Well, I hope you guys have a great week this week.Thanks for everything.  I Love you all!!!Elder Kapple

June 27, 2011

Hola Como Estan,
Sorry this e-mail isn't going to be a very long one because we have a lot of things to do before the boat leaves for La Ceiba today.  But Elder Harris’ family showed up yesterday during church because they missed the boat on Saturday night.  It was fun to meet them though.  His brother went and worked with us yesterday.  He served in Argentina. His Spanish sounds really funny to me and then his cousin came too, and he served in Spain and he even sounds more funny.  But yes, we’re leaving the island today because Elder Harris and his family are going down to Trujillo. Elder Harris served there for 6 months.  So they’re going to go visit and his family brought clothes and stuff to give to the people there.  And no, I don't get to go, I’ll be in La Ceiba until around Thursday I think.  It sounds like you guys had a great week hanging out up in the Park City.  And I'm proud Lenna can say my name now. 
Mom, I should be able to get my packages that you sent today. Well, right now we still have the same progressing investigators.  They still need to get married (and one of them needs to get divorced first) but I think that should happen pretty soon.  And we’re teaching La familia Lopez (Walter and Helen).  They’re really cool minus the fact that Walter isn't really progressing but Helen is awesome.  She speaks a lot better English than she does Spanish but Walter only speaks Spanish.  Helen is reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  She still hasn't gone to church but she tells us that she has recieved her answer but just wants it to be a little more clear, and she really wants Walter to change.  He won’t do anything.  He won’t even pray with her and their little boy.  It's kind of a hard because he says he will but he won’t pray or do anything so pray for him.  We had to leave a lot of are other investigators because they weren't progressing.Sorry, I’ve already got to go.  We have a lot to do.  I’ll send the rest of the recordings next week and I forgot my camera.  But I promise I’ll send pictures next week.  Pray that nothing bad happens to the island while the missionaries are off of it. 
I love you all. Thanks for everything.
Con Amor Elder Kapple.

June 20, 2011

Picture of a tarantula we killed in our house

This last week was pretty good.  However, our friend Minor ended up not coming to church and we did find out some bad news.  He's going to be going to the states but he's not going to go right way.  He said he leaves in 2 weeks so it wouldn't be enough time to get him baptized.  We had a super good lesson with him too.  We taught lesson one with him and the spirit was really strong during the Joseph Smith part and he said he wanted to know if it's true and that he'll pray and everything. We still have another appointment with him this week all we'll find out if he's still planning on leaving.  We'll have to give him a Book of Mormon so he can have that and hopefully more missionaries will find him.  Maybe Eric or Parker could teach him in Texas -haha.  We still have a lot of the same investigators but none of them want to go to church so I think we'll have to drop them pretty quick here.  I think a lot of it has to do with some of the rumors that are on the island about the Mormons.  This Sunday was really good though.  For the first time since I've been here we had someone else bless the sacrament.  It was cool.  He's our cook’s husband.  He goes to church every other week but he usually doesn’t come in a white shirt and tie.  So we told him to come this week with his white shirt and tie. He did a good job. Then we also gave Clevland a calling this week - haha,  he is the greeter for when people show up at church.  It was cool. Sunday morning we went around to make sure people were coming to church so we showed up at the church at like 8:35 and it starts at 9:00 and Clevland was already there waiting.  I think this is really going to help him quit smoking.  Because he doesn't always go church but this is kind of going to make him go.  I know he can quit smoking he just has to do it.
Also - I forgot to tell you guys about the activity that we had.  We did an iron rod activity with the branch this week. It was really good. It's the same one that we did at Sons of Heleman with a rope and blind folds.  It turned out really good and a lot of people showed up.  It was kind of a lot of work though because we had to buy everything for it.  It was cool  - we did it right on the beach in a grove of trees.  I think there was only one person that made it all of the way without letting go of the iron rod once - haha.  We put stickers on all of the ones that let go of the rod on the way.  It was kind of funny though because there were some ladies there that aren't that active that were really lost during the activity.  But hopefully they learned a good lesson. I’ll send more pics of it next week. Well, it sounds like you guys had a fun week and are keeping KK entertained.  There were some medical students here on Utila this week.  Two of them came to church. Tell Todd to do a medical thing down here - haha. Mom, I haven't gotten my package yet but the zl's told us that they have it at their house with a bunch of letters so don't worry. I’ll get them next week because Elder Harris will be leaving so I’ll be staying in La Ceiba for a few days. Well, I hope that everything is going good and that you guys have a good week. Thanks for everything

I Love you all!!!

Cuidense

Elder Kapple

June 13, 2011

Hola! Como estan?
Things have been busy here.  It's a little bit different type of work here though. We have a few progressing investigators and we’re working a lot with the members. The hard part here is finding more investigators.  We teach a lot of first lessons to people here.  Almost with every contact we can set an appointment with them. They’re always way interested in our message, well not all. There are a lot of rumors on the island about the "Mormon" Church, about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, and just our church in general, but nobody studies the things out that they hear, they just think that they’re true.  But for the ones that are interested, it's rare that they are willing to change, because of things like drugs, fornication, marrige (marrige is a scary word here in Honduras).  But we found a really cool guy this week that I really think is ready to change. His name in Minor and he is a 19 year old black guy.  I thought he was like 30 because it seems like everyone looks really old for their age here.  But we taught him and asked him if he was willing to change and he said yes and we challenged him to be baptized and he accepted. They’re always a little afraid to accept the date to get baptized, but he still did.  It's kind of funny - he just walked into the internet cafe and is sitting right next to me now -haha.
Then also today we were going to go do wash and Clevland was outside.  He hasn't been doing too well this week with the smoking and he didn't go to church.  He came up and told us to come over tonight because he wants a blessing, and said he had a dream last night.  He didn't tell us what it was about yet but will tonight.  But I know he is ready to change now, and he knows he has to do it.  The Lord works in different ways.  The ZL's came to the island today and they’re going to be here for a few days. (Elder Jones and Elder Miligan).  We went out to Pumpkin Hill and then to that old hotel building.  It's been fun and I'm excited to work with them.  Sorry this is short but there was a huge line that we had to wait in and we need to go shower.
Thanks so much for all of your love and support.
I Love You All!!!
Con Amor Elder Kapple

June 6, 2011

Hola
How are all of you guys?  It sounds like you’re all doing well and just getting ready for summer and everything. I’ll start by answering all of the questions first. Dad, I don't know if I’ll sup (be senior comp.) when Elder Harris leaves in 4 weeks. It could be either way. They could send someone else out like Elder Harris who is going to finish quick or someone younger.  I haven't finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish yet but my goal is to finish it this month.  I'm in 3rd Nephi right now, so not too much more. Thanks for those pictures Dad. I'm in the Colon Zone picture because I missed the one for La Ceiba-  haha.  We’re not allowed to go down to the Cays (little islands off the coast of Utila) because you have to go in a boat so we can't do that. But Elder Harris’ familia is going to come here to pick him up so they'll be here that last Sunday.  So I think he's going to ask President Veirs if we can go on a tour around the island with his familia. - haha.  That Jade Shore place that you sent fotos of is right at the bottom of the street that we live on but it's not a good place. Every night we walk by and they always have weird music, and drinking and what appears to be some bad stuff going on.  But it does have a lot of cool design things made of sea shells etc. Mom, I’ll take some pictures for you of our house but I’ll just warn you now that this house is a lot different from the one in Canstanos. We have a nice cockroach collection going on right now - haha.

Well this week was a pretty long one and pretty short at the same time. We had the opportunity to listen to Elder Clarke this week at zone conferences.  It was really good and we learned a lot. I talk about it in the recordings but I’ll say a little about it here.  He is a really direct guy and just tells the plain truth. He talked a lot about the power we have as missionaries.  And he really focused on not just having baptisms but having converts and how we can get better at helping the people that we baptize true converts.  He did really a great job and speaks Spanish really well.  He finishes serving as area President in July so he won’t be coming to talk here anymore and I'm pretty sure he just got put into the First Quorum of Seventy.  So that was on Wednesday and right after that Elder Harris and I had to take a bus with the A.P's up to San Pedro because I received  my residence thing for Honduras and we had to stay the night up there.  Then we got back to the island Thursday night.  So this week we did some traveling.

This Sunday was a lot different from what I have ever seen. We had a total of 15 people come to church  I know - it's a lot haha.  Some of the members here are more like investigators.  We never know for sure if they’re going to come or not.  But it ended up being a really good fast and testimony meeting and 10 of the 15 gave their testimony's.  We have to do a lot more work with the members out here.  Also, our man Clevland is finally progressing.  He only smoked 2 ciguretes on Saturday and none yesterday.  He is so determined to stop smoking and I know he'll do it.  It has been really hard on him but he'll be able to do it.
But yes, this week was different with all of the traveling and stuff - haha.
Thanks for all of the emails and all of the love and support you guys give me.  It really means a lot.
Cuidense
Con Amor
Elder Kapple

May 30, 2011

Hola como estan
     Things are good here in Caribbean Sea. This week has definitely been the hottest weather that I have felt here in the mission. We would just walk for like 2 minutes and just be dripping in sweat, fun I know haha.  A good thing about being here on the island is that there is usually a breeze in the afternoon.
      Well, this week we did a little bit of some searching on the island and we ended up going to both ends of the bay. On one of the sides of the island there are a lot of Americans and other people that live there that have huge houses. So we went and contacted down there because one day one of the american ladies gave us a ride in her golf cart so we got to know her and told her we would go and visit her.  So we did.  She gave us a tour of her house and we just got to know her and then as soon as we brought up religion or God she just shot it right down and that’s how a lot of those people were down on that side of the island. It just shows how these people are not humble at all with all this money and stuff.  It was awesome to get a tour of the house and that part was amazing, but these people don't have a purpose here and just live this life and do nothing - haha.
     Well I conducted for the first time in a sacrament meeting this week. I was pretty nervous but everything turned out good, and I had to talk and teach the class.  It's pretty frustrating just because there are a lot of members that are capable of doing these things but when we ask them they don't want to or they just won’t show up prepared. So we really have to try to change that stuff around here.
     We have been doing something as a companship lately that has really been helping I think.  In our very first appointment that we do, we challenge the people to get baptized. Of course there are always a few that we don't do it with or we just beat around the bush a little bit with it just because they’re not ready for it yet.  But it really has been helping us to know if that person is ready or not to change their lives for the better. And we know whether we might be wasting time with them or not; that sounds a little mean but it's true.
    One guy that we have been working with is a fisherman named Cleveland. He's a member but kind of inactive. His family are members, some inactive, but his wife and daughter are 2 of the best members we have.  He has a lot of different things going on in his life that really have been stressing him out.  So he got back into the habit of smoking, but really wants to quit. He's an awesome guy but just needs to make the decision to stop so say an extra prayer for him, he might be the future branch presidency out here.
     Well thanks for all of the emails and support, it means a lot.
Mom Your questions:
So will you stay on the island for a while? 3 to 4 changes I think.  Do you and Elder Harris still get up and go jogging in the mornings? This week we haven't, we were way too tired because when we go run we wake up at 5:45 but we have been so tired this week - haha.  On the island of Utila do you have a cook and someone who does your laundry? Cook yes and washer lady  - no. we go to a members house and use her washer.  How are the bugs? They’re pretty bad here.  I think I have killed 20 cockroaches already in our house.  This mission has a guy that sprays the houses for bugs but he doesn't come out here.   Do you teach and have church in Spanish? Sometimes we have to teach in English because some people speak better English than Spanish and church is in Spanish.  Did you have anyone new at church this week and how is the teaching going? We had 3 investgators this week.  We’re just waiting for some of there familia to get back so they'll get married.  They’re a really cool famlilia. The dad is already a member but the wife and kids aren't. They are really smart.

Mom I'm glad you’re already worrying about my birthday package -haha.  But maybe just send 2 white shirts  - 17 and a half neck size, athletic fit, tall.  That’s all for now.

Well - have a good week.
I love and miss you all!!!
Cuidense
Con Amor
Elder Kapple

May 23, 2011

Elder Hafen and Elder Kapple

View from our apartment

Elder Kapple and Elder Harris

WOW! From the dusty streets of La Lima, to the busy streets of San Perdo, to the sandy beaches of Utila. - yup that's right!  I got changed to the island of Utila in the zone La Cieba, and wow is it a difference from the other places.  I don't even know where to begin.  The island has about 3,000 people with about 80 members.  At church yesterday there were 25 people there.  My Comp (Elder Harris) is the branch president which makes me first councilor I guess.  We’re the only priestood on the island, well I guess there are some people that have the priesthood here but they don't come to church.  So we do everything.  Bless, prepare, pass, give the talks, and teach the lessons.  It is crazy.  The island is really different. There are a lot of tourists all of the time and most of the people speak English but they have a wierd accent. So it really isn't going to help with my Spanish haha.  My comp is awesome.  His name is Elder Harris.  He's a 6'6" white guy from California. This is his last change so I'm going to be sending him home in 6 weeks, but he's still a super hard worker and a great missionary.  We’re kind of just stranded out here.  We only go to the mainland for multi-zone conferences and interviews and if one of us has a change.  We do a lot of work with the members and trying to get them back to church especially the men.  As Elder Harris likes to put it "We’re teaching the men how to be men!"  We still have some investigators but most of the work is still with the inactives. We have to teach a lot about the Sabbath day because almost everyone here believes that the Sabbath day is Saturday - haha.  It's really wierd, we do everything with tithing and fast offerings.  After church on Sunday we have to fill out all of the reports and everything, so I'm learning how to do all of that. We also have to take care of all of the welfare program stuff.  Like today we had to go take food for this lady and her familia because they don't have anything.  It's just crazy, all of this stuff.  We’re just 2 young guys and we are incharge of everything out here - haha.
Thanks for all of the e-mails everyone!  It's always good to hear from all of you every week.
I Love you all!!!
Cuidense
Con Amor
Elder Kapple