March 28th, 2011

 Baptism of Miguel (11 years old)

Hola
How is everybody doing?
So the week here started good but ended kind of bad. We had our fetchas (dates) with familia Esperanza and I went on divisions with our zone leader, Elder Sorenson and we went to teach them to confirm their baptism date but the mom wasn´t there so we interviewed the 2 kids and just told them to ask permission.  I went back with Elder Ruano on Friday night and they had to hurry and leave for something and seemed like they didn´t want to talk.  So we figured that Saturday they were not going to get baptized.  Then we went back Saturday night and someone opened the door, saw it was us and closed it. So I just sent them a text reminding them of church and all the kids showed up.  We talked to them and they said their mom won’t give them permission.  So we talked with their neighbor (a member Hna. Wendy).  Hna. Wendy said that the mom said she is catholic and her kids will be baptised in the church that she chooses.  We need to go back and talk to them, I think we will tonight.  But it is just really sad that the mom is doing this because Diana, the oldest daughter really wants to and has a testimony, is reading the Book of Mormon and everything.  So that’s where we’re at right now with them.  We did have one baptism this week, Miguel.  A 11 year old. He´s awesome and is really smart.  We did the baptism before church on Sunday because the power was out on Saturday, or as they say here that there isn´t light.  And you have to have a pump to have water in the church so we did it Sunday.  Conference is this week.  I´m pretty excited but sad I can’t actually go to the conference center in SLC but it´s ok.  I think there will be some crazy stuff said with everything that is going on.  We have to go to the stake center Saturday but Sunday it will be in our church in Pineda.  So that is what happened this week.  Pray for Esperanza, that she´ll let her kids be baptized and one day she will.

Thanks for everything.
I Love You All!!!
Elder Kapple

Most Baptisms

Elder Kapple's Zone recently was rewarded with lunch at President and Sister Veirs' house because they had the most baptisms.

March 21, 2011

Hola,
Things are going well here in Pineda. This week was pretty good. We had a lot of new investigators.  One to tell you about is Family Esperhonza (Hope)  That´s the moms name.  Her daughter went to church this last week too.  We went to their house this week a few times and the lessons have been really good.  It´s a family that actually wants to learn and ask questions.  Sometimes we teach people and they just agree with everything that we say which is good but some of them do just because there scared and don´t want to ask questions.  So we challenged this family to be baptized on the 26th and they said yes.  The family is a mom and 2 daughters but the mom didn´t go to church yesterday so she wont be able to be baptized this week but we still might be able to baptize her daughters. One of her daughters is named Diana.  She really likes church and always reads the chapters that we leave in the Book of Mormon. We had a multi-zone conference this last week.  It was really good.  President Veirs talked about the atonement and what one goes thru with the way they would crucify people.  I don´t even know how to explain it and don´t want to try but it´s crazy and makes you realize how much Christ really did suffer for us.
My comp is still on the lazy side of things but we get along really well.  I´ve talked to him about sleeping and studying but he doesn´t think it´s a big deal and always says that he´s done it for like half of his mission.  I’ll have a change in April so I don´t have to worry about it too much longer.  For this next week I think we could have 3 baptisms but we´ll see.  Not everyone ended up going to church, which is too bad, because Elder Ruano and I gave great talks - haha.  We both just talked about missionary work and how members can be a really big help.  I used one of the quotes that you sent me, Kayli. That’s way exciting about Preston, Eric and PJ.  Tell them congrats.

Mom, I hope you had a happy birthday and I know yours and Dad’s anniversary is sometime this month so happy anniversary too.
Thanks for everything that you guys do and all the support.  It was Fathers Day here on Saturday and made me realize how grateful that I am for you guys.
I Love you all!!!
Con Amor (Mom: it means with love)
Elder Kapple

March 14, 2011

Hola,
The BIG 50 Dad. You are an old man - haha. But it sounded like you guys had fun for the big birthday this past week and you´ll get to celebrate again this week for Mom’s. Mom, you’re not too far behind Dad - just 1 year and a few days- haha.  Thanks for all the updates about Japan and all that stuff.  I didn´t think Kel left until today but I´m glad that he is safe and all is good over there.  I heard too that there were warnings in Central America but I´m on the other side of the country so I don´t have too much to worry about here.  Just the heat.  It´s getting pretty bad.  That´s amazing that all the missionaries are safe.  Someone said that like 10,000 people have died.  It sounds like it´s starting to warm up in Ogden.  Mom, I like that you said you were excited to do yard work. I laughed at that.

Last week was pretty good.  We ended up having 2 baptisms; Yorleny and Jr. - Yorleny is 14 and Jr. is 13.  Yorleny lives with members but they’re not her parents but they might as well be.  They’re pretty funny.  The dad is trying to learn English and so he always talks to me in English.  He just sounds really funny but I’m sure that´s how I sound.  But they’re pretty inactive so hopfully this will help them go back to church with Yorleny being baptised.  Then Jr. is the son of Hermana Mararita.  She is really cool and has really changed.  Her other 2 kids aren´t going to get baptized but she has Jr. now.  They read and pray everynight together so that´s really cool.  Then yesterday we had 8 investigators at church but we had only directly invited 2 of them.  So we need to visit all of them today and tomorrow.  I think quite a few of them could be baptisms pretty quick. Then there was another death in the ward; well, there was actually 2.  Somebody dies here every week.  The mom of Mariana died of old age. - Mariana is who we baptized 2 weeks ago.  Then one of our investigators died, although he wasn’t progressing.  His mom’s a member. boyfriend died but this could be a good thing because they were living in fornication and this might help her son want to change because the dad wasn´t a very good example.
But that´s what is happening here.  I think we will have 3 baptisms this week also so we’re pretty excited about that.
Thanks for everything
I Love You All!!!
Con Amor
Elder Kapple

March 7, 2011

Baptism of Maryann and Juan Carlos

Elder Ruano and Elder Kapple

Hola,

How is everybody doing?  Things have been good this week.  We already have 5 fetcha (baptism dates) for this month. The only bad part is that we don´t have any more after that progressing. So we only have those 5 people.  Two of the baptisms are this week.  One tomorrow and the other on Saturday.  Then the others next week. We have been teaching them a lot this week just to get them prepared.  One of them isn´t understanding all of it so we have to repeat things a lot with him.  We really need to search for some new investigators.  The baptisms that we have for this month are all like 15 years old.  President Veirs wants us to focus on families and priesthood holders so we need to focus on that.  My comp is a nice guy and easy to get along with but is already getting really baggy and he really likes to sleep.  I get alot of extra study time.  I´ll only be in Pineda until April 6th when we have changes because he´ll have one more change here with someone else to train.  Dad, you asked if he´s the district leader; he is not.  We just ate at President Veirs house today for lunch.  It was really good.  But that´s all that is happening this week.  Just preparing people but we really need to search for new ones.

There is a week called semana santa (holy week) that I guess is really hot.  It´s in April but everyone says it is deathly hot.  Dad, you are an old man, 50.  I can´t believe it.  It´s ok though; you still play like you are 30 – ha- ha. Mom, I couldn´t tell you how many baptisms I have had so far.  That´s your job to count but I do have it in the house.  Dad, you asked if we can give members money.  I think it´s a rule that we shouldn’t but I have given a little but just if they need to buy medicine or something. There is a family that needs it bad.  Hermano Fabrigus that we baptized in December is working 2 jobs to pay for his house and his land because something went wrong, I can´t remember exactly what.  So if you want to build a house in Pineda you could by some of the land he has – ha-ha.
I hope all is good. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD AND TODD!!!

I love you all!!!
Con Amor
Elder Kapple

Febraury 28th, 2011

Hola,
Things were pretty good this week along with some bad things too but overall a good week.  We had 2 more baptisms this week so that was really good.  I didn´t have my camera because one of the members has it right now who went to see his family.  He is a great help to us so I let him use it.  But it was hermana Mariana and her son Juan Carlos that got baptized.  It was the really weird yet a  really cool baptism.  We have been teaching her since I have been here and she finally did it.  She was more than ready and the reason because it was weird is because her son can’t walk and can only use one arm and he isn´t the smallest guy.  He can´t talk but can understand everything.  He can make sounds and do sign language with one of his hands so his mom can understand him.  I baptized him and a member baptized Mariana.  But with him we had 2 people in the font and we put a chair in there for him to sit on.  It was funny because he had his nose plugged the entire time so I just put my hand on his chest and said the prayer.  Then we pulled the seat out from underneath him to baptize him.   It was pretty cool though.  Then we have so many possibilities for this month.  We have already got 5 fetchas (dates) this month and we have more that we will still baptize.  I talk about them in the recordings.  So this Sunday we had a super baptism with the entire zone and baptized like 20 people.  We didn´t do our baptisms there because Juan Carlos can´t walk.  But it was pretty cool and we were the zona celestail ( the celestial zone) for this month and the new thing is that zona celestail gets to eat with Hermana and Presidente Veirs.  I don´t know when but we get to play soccer with the office today, like the assistants and the secretaries.  We ended with something like 33 baptisms in our Zone.

So about my new comp.  He´s a nice guy and is just really chill and easy to get along with.  His name is Elder Ruano.  He is from Guatemala and speaks less English than Elder Galán and speaks with a really different dialect, but that’s fine.  It will help me.  He only has 2 more changes (3 months) so I´ll be with him for this change and then I’ll get changed to somewhere else.  He has 9 brothers and sisters.  He is the 5th and the first to serve a mission.  Mom, we changed the beds so there’s not bunk beds anymore - ha-ha.  I get a lot of personal study time with him because he really likes to sleep -  ha-ha.  So I might have to talk to him about that one.  But he is a really nice elder.  Mom - about the pictures.  That is our bishop.  He´s a really cool guy and helps us a lot, and yes I really ate the fish.   I have eaten a lot of things that I never would have before.  Dad, I don’t know how many miles I walk a day, plus it depends on the day.  Like if we go to the other side of the bridge it´s a lot more.  It sounded like skiing was really good with all the powder and you finally got some snow.  Dad, I bet your pretty relieved that conference is over.  Erika, tell Andrew thanks for the sports update.  All they talk about is soccer down here –ha-ha.  And thanks for the pictures.  Lenna looks really cute.    KK - for the missionary work; you can really help the missionaries by giving them references. That’s something that President Veirs has had us focus on.  I need to do a lot better at it but 2 of the baptisms we have for this coming month have been from referrals.
Oh and Dad, I can print things from the e-mails so no worries.
Sorry there aren´t any pictures.  I’ll send some next week.  We had to go to a different place to use internet today and it´s really slow here but next time I’ll use Elder Ruano’s camera to send you pictures of the baptism.
I hope all is good back at home.
I love you all!!!
Con Amor
Elder Kapple

Lima Stake Conference

Elders Galan-Garcia-Kapple-Petersen
Hermanas Matias-Veirs-Zaldaña-Fajardo


These picture are from President and Sister Veirs blog. They are pictures of Elder Kapple's zone at Stake Conference.  

Elder Marcia-Hermanas Zaldaña-Fajardo-Veirs-Rodriquez-Elders Rowe-Sorenson

Goodwin-Retana-Cornia