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

March 26th, 2012

What’s up family?  How is it going?
Man - do the weeks just keep on getting faster and faster.  It really just felt like yesterday that I was writing to all of you.  With these extra responsibilities, it really makes the time fly but I am really enjoying it.  This week was a good one and we finished it with 2 baptisms.  They were good baptisms but we really need to keep teaching them so they stay active and we need to keep focusing on families.  The baptisms were 2 girls, which is great too, but the wards here do need more priesthood.  That has been one of our focuses here in Villanueva for Elder Johnson and me.  If we see a family in the street we always talk to them.  Sometimes Elder Johnson makes us chase them down - haha.  Now we just need to get some of them baptized.  We did have 2 in church on Sunday and in total we had 11 investigators.  We could of had even more and Elder Johnson and I learned a great lesson from our experience.  We went to go pass by a family’s house Sunday morning to remind them about church and being the jokesters that Elder Johnson and I are we were just jokeing around with them and we said something that apparently offended them, mostly me. The dad’s mom is a member so she told us that they got a little offended and that is why they didn't come.  So right after lunch we went to their house and apologized for what had happened so now everything is good but man I felt bad - I was about crying over it.  It looks like as a zone we’re going to be finishing with about 23 baptisms with 4 families; it's not bad but we can do a lot better and plus they just opened up another area so we have 10 companionships.  The missionaries seem to not be working at their full potential, and I know I can always get better too but I know that these missionaries can do better.  So now we’re going to be doing divisions 2 times a week with them.  We started this last week so Elder Johnson and I aren't going to be together in our area very much but it will help the other missionaries.  Divisions are always fun and you can always learn a lot from the other missionaries.  We have had some great experiences with one family that was going to go to church.  She is already a member but inactive.  Every time we go there, the kids get so happy and they have the cutest little family.  We have only taught them a few things but the Spirit has definitely always been there.  I know that the rest of the family will all get baptized.

Well, I hope all is well with you.  Keep these investigators in your prayers so that they progress.  Thanks for all that you do for me.  I Miss and Love You All!!!
Con Amor
Elder Kapple

March 19, 2012

What’s up everybody?
How is it going? First off; Mom, I want to wish you a happy birthday and let you know that you’re the best.  I don't know what I would do without you.  You really are so amazing.  Sorry I missed your surprise party.  Maybe next year -  haha, and also happy anniversary to Mom and Dad. 29 years is a long time but if you both made it this long, you can definitely make it a lifetime! You guys are the best.  And happy birthday to Todd too.  Well this week was a good one.  Tuesday we had some district meetings and worked in our area normally.  Then Wednesday we had a great meeting with Elder Martino.  It was a super good meeting.  Elder Martino talked a lot about how we need to be better at doing things like reading our scriptures every day, getting up at 6:30 am  - just those little things and if we don't, we’re hypocrites.  It’s true because we always tell our investigators that they need to do these things like read the scriptures every day and be obedient.  Then at the end of these meetings they always leave time to talk about more doctrine.  Elder Martino talked about the atonement and how it is infinite.  It was really good and it is amazing at how well they know the doctrine and can teach us.  Then on Wednesday we had another meeting but it was a little more personal.  It was just with all of the ZL's.  I think there are 22 of us so the meeting size was much smaller.  At first he taught us how to do a zone leader counsel and what we need to do and then we went over some new mission standards that Elder Martino had talked about. Things that we need to put into practice to help us more.  Things like involve the members more and other ways to get references.  Then after that, Elder Martino talked a lot about how we need to be the examples, and he asked us all how many baptisms we had for the month and how many we have to finish the month and he was really impressed because we all have some great possibilities.  And every companionship had a family for a possibility.  So he told us that if we all baptize a family he'll get us all a steak dinner  - but our family didn't go to church yesterday so that was a big time bummer.  Then Elder Martino talked about the Holy Ghost and then answered questions.  It's so awesome when they answer questions.  I just fill like he knows everything.  President Veirs is the same way.  We also had a great stake conference this week.  It was via satellite for all of Central America.  Elder Clark, Elder Packer and another general authority who is in the presidency of the Seventy spoke.  Elder Clark talked about how if we keep the commandments we will prosper in the land. That is something big that this country needs.  When times get hard for people, instead of being more obedient they sometimes get more disobedient and fall away from the church.  The sad part about church yesterday was that we only had 3 investigators come.  But they loved church.  It was a familia that we found last week.  The mom is a member and sent her 4 kids to church but she didn't go with them but she told us that she knows that the church is true.  Last night we went there and their kids said that they loved church.  In fact, the oldest of them walked out of the church crying yesterday because of the spirit that she felt.  We taught a little bit about lesson1 and the dad understood very well and had some great input.  They are an awesome family and I know they'll get baptized.  Well, the mission is awesome.  I just wish that I had more time in the day because we can never get done what we want to get done.  This next week should be really good.  President Veirs is going to be with us along with the AP's for our district meeting this week so that should be really fun.
Thanks for all that you do.  I Miss and Love You All!!!!
Elder Kapple

March 12, 2012

Well, hello my beloved family and friends - haha.
How are you all doing? Things are great here in...................San Pedro Sula, haha -  yep that's right I got changed to the San Pedro area again  - well, not in Centro, we’re more like an hour or so away in Zona Villanueva.  My comp is awesome.  His name is Elder Johnson.  He is from California and we are the same height, so we pretty much own this place - haha.  We have about the same time out in the mission; he just has one more change than me, and we are the Zone Leaders here.  We get along really well.  There are 3 districts with 18 missionaries in total.  Being a ZL is fun but super tiring.  I don’t think we have gone to bed before 11:30 in my time here.  There is always something to do, but it is fun and I am really enjoying it.  This week was good though.  On Monday and Tuesday I said goodbye to everyone in Florida.  It was really a hard area but I feel like we did a lot of good work there.  I will miss it but Elder Johnson and I both served there so we have some good stories about it.  I really did learn a lot there and really strengthened my testimony.  I’ll miss it but I guess it was my time to leave.  Changes were good and I was really excited when I heard that Elder Johnson was going to be my comp.  We work really well together.  I feel like we’re going to have a lot of fun and try to do some great things here in Villanueva.  This week we really worked hard -  well, for 4 days anyway here in the area and we were able to find 3 families.  We’re really trying to focus on families here.  We have some great possibilities coming too.  We should have one this weekend and at least one the next.  The members are really great here also and I already feel at home - minus the part that I’m still lost - haha.  That’s the hardest part about entering a new area is learning it.  And this one is really going to be hard.  Our area is pretty much a mountain, so I have a feeling that I’m going to lose a lot more weight.  This week will be a busy one but will be really fun and spiritually uplifting also.  We’re going to have a chance to visit with Elder Martino, a counselor of the Central American Area Presidency and a member of the Second Quorum of Seventy.  We have a multi zone this Wednesday and on Thursday we have a ZL meeting with him so I’m really excited for it.  Well, sorry this is kind of short.  We have a lot of things to do on the computer today so we have to do it right now.
I Miss and Love You All
Elder Kapple