July 18, 2011

HOLA
How is everybody? First off - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANDREW ( it’s a few days late but I hope you´ll still accept it) and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KK. I hope that Andrew had a good birthday and that KK will have a good birthday.  Also, thank you Grandma and Grandpa Erickson for the birthday presents.  It means a lot, I love you.  Ok - so there were a few questions that you guys asked to I´ll answer those first.  Mom - you asked if there are a lot of bugs and yes there are.  When I first got to this house it was filled with cockroaches but we did a lot of killing and there aren´t as many now, but we still get some every once in awhile.  Cleveland is all right but we’ve decided to leave him for a while though.  We haven´t talked to him about smoking for a week now and I think we´ll wait another week to bring it up.  Dad asked about my new calling as a branch president and how my Spanish is coming.  Being in the branch presidency gives us a lot more responsibilities but it hasn’t been super overwhelming.  The Spanish is good, but there is always something else to learn or get better at.  And for some reason I always feel like I have to say everything correctly when I speak in Spanish -  haha.  On the island there is a lot of English spoken.  With the islanders, they prefer English.  It´s probably 60/40 (Spanish/English).  We did not make it to Rock Harbor on our planned hike last week on P-day.  It was way too swampy because it rained the night before but we´ll make it another day.  But today we went to these caves (see attached pictures) with one of the members named Lee (Elidas’ husband).  He knows the entire island so he took us to the caves and there were so many bats and bugs and stuff but it was way cool and the cave is really big.  We didn´t go all the way down because we didn´t have enough rope (you have to tie a rope at the entrance so you can find your way back), and plus there´s water down there and we can´t go swimming – haha.  Yes - those are bats in the cave that you can see in my attached pictures.  So this week was pretty tough. Many of the people here really just aren´t that interested to hear the gospel.  The Hondurans just make up excuses and the islanders are just hard hearted.  So finding new people has been pretty hard and many of the people that we always pass on the street are people that we have already contacted so we are starting to run into that problem.  So this week we took a list of all of the branch members and sat down with Maria and found out who is still on the island and who isn´t and where they live so this week we’re going to start searching them out.  Unfortunately, Helen didn´t end up coming to church yesterday so that was a big bummer but we have an appointment with her tonight so we´ll see what happened.  We did find a new guy though named Isaac this week.  He is really cool and really understands.  He came to an hour of church, the problem is he still needs to get married and his wife is on the coast but we’re planting the seed for him.  Sorry this is short but we need to hurry.  We have to talk at a funeral of one of the members that died a year ago.  So today is his one year mark so we have to go do that.
Thanks for everything I love you ALL!!!
Pray for this island.
Elder Kapple

July 11, 2011

Apartment Pictures

Everything is fine and dandy here on our little Caribbean Island.This week was a good one. We have been pretty busy. Being the branch presidency out here gives us a few more responsibilities. We have a camp out coming up this next week so we have been running aroung getting all of the permision slips and then somehow I got put in charge of letting Roatan members know what is going on too.  So that has us a little busy.  Being branch president didn't bring to many changes from what I was already doing as first councilor.  The only difference now is that I do interviews but those don't happen all that much.  I had one this week because a family needs some welfare money.  It's a family of 9 so it's really big.  It's pretty sad because the father doesn't have very much work because there isn't that much work on the island for him. So after a discussion we came up with some agreements that they need to do, but the church will still help them out. Then we had 2 other super duper cool things happen this week.  WE FINALLY HAVE A FETCHA!!!  (baptism date)  Her name is Helen.  She’s the one that has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying but her husband hasn’t done anything so we went and taught her because she couldn't just wait around for her husband to progress.  So we challenged her to be baptized on the 6th of August.  She accepted but is still pretty nervous.  She is awesome.  She is pretty much American.  She grew up in Illinois and does not speak Spanish very well. But she will be a great convert. Then we had a branch conference this week.  We had the oportunity to be with President Veirs for two days.  He came in Saturday morning and left Sunday afternoon.  We took him to visit a few people (which includes Cleveland who promised he wasn’t going to smoke another cigarette from Sunday on and he ended up smoking on Sunday.  I think we’re just going to leave it alone for a few weeks and not bug him about it just to see what he does.  We talked to his wife for a while last night and it is just a really sad thing.  But the conference was really good.  Elder Sommer, President Veirs and I just talked on Saturday and Sunday.  It was just an hour on Saturday and then Sunday was just a normal Sunday set of meetings.  We had 20 people on Saturday (it was kind of scary though because we only stareted the meeting with one person there on time; (Many Hondurans aren't too good about being on time).  Then Sunday we had 30 people, and some of the people were people that haven't been to church for a while.  President Veirs is awesome and it was a fun time with him. Today we’re going to try to make it to the other side of the island to Rock Harbor.  I guess there is a trail but not a very good one.  We told Cleveland if we’re not back in a few days to come search for us but I figure we can't get to lost, I mean  - we are on an island.  Well, I hope everything is good for you guys.  Until next week.
Cuidense,Elder Kapple

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