November 28th, 2011

Hey how is it going?
This week was a good one. We started it with a meeting with President Veirs and the AP´s. As a mision now we are really focusing on familias. The goal is to be teaching 10 familias with 5 progressing and 2 baptized each month. It sounds like a lot but it really isn´t. Right now we have 4 familias progressing and 2 of them have fetchas for this month. The familia Perez has a fetcha for the 10th and the familia Paguada for the 24th. They’re not solid fetchas but those are the goals. This will really help us to have more baptisms also because if a familia gets baptized they usually give a reference of another familia so it is just like a chain reaction to have more familias to be teaching. So that is what we really need to focus more on now is familias. After the meeting, President Veirs took us to eat for being zona celestial and I don’t think I had eaten that much for a long time, but I just counted it as my Thanksgiving dinner -  haha.
This week we also had our activity which went AWESOME.  Our goal for the people to show up was 75 and we had 86 with like 16 non-members.  It was really good and all of the members really liked it. All of the programs did a little act and talk describing their program.  They all did a good job. Right now we have some great possibilities for December. We have one for this weekend named Marlon, he is Gloria’s son. Gloria got baptized about a month ago and also the Perez familia for the 10th and the Paguada familia for the 24th. This week we need to really focus on the people that we have and help them gain a testimony. This morning we took down a wall in our cook’s house.  It was kind of fun but we’re super tired - haha.
Well, I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, we just bought a pizza for dinner. - haha.
I Miss and Love You All!!!
Elder Kapple

November 21st, 2011

Hey how is it going?
It sounds like all of you guys are doing well. This week had some ups and downs for us. But I learned a lot.  Right now we have a lot of good investigators and we found some really good new ones this week.  But one thing that we have really been focusing on too much is numbers.  We always have to focus a little bit on numbers, because we have goals and we need to do everything that we can to try to complete the goals that we have set, but this month I focused way too hard on the numbers and not the people and what they really need.  I think it was because last month we had 15 baptisms and we really thought that this month we could have another 8 baptisms.  But we really need to focus on what the person needs to progress, not just the baptism itself.  I was just focusing on how we could convince them or talk them into getting baptized and I wasn´t giving them time to have the spirit work in them.  But this month I have definitely learned my lesson on how to focus more on the investigators and their needs.  This will really help throughout the rest of my mission.

We didn’t have any baptisms this week and I don’t think we´ll have one until the 3rd of December.  We still have a possibility with Precede and Pastora but we won’t know until tonight in our appointment with them.  But I think she wants to wait a little bit longer.  She has a really strong testimony but she feels like she needs to wait which is fine.  We found a really cool family this week.  We were walking to an appointment and this one guy called us over and told us that he wants us to visit him and his family and that the missionaries had passed by there before. We searched for their teaching record and found out that 2 of their kids are members.  They live like 30 minutes from the church and up in the mountains but we searched and finally found the house.  The appointment went great and they want to get married and baptized.  He went to church yesterday but she didn´t because she had to wait for her kid.  It really is a great family and they live very humbly. We need to do a few things though before the wedding and the baptisms.  He works on Sunday (not right now, he has like 3 months off) so we need to talk to his boss and see what we can do there.  So keep the familia Mendez in your prayers.  We also have a few more possibilities coming up for December.  We have a zone meeting tomorrow with President Veirs in Tocoa so I’m really excited for that but I think he´ll be correcting a lot of things that are going on because we only have 3 baptisms as a zone right now so hopefully he won’t be too mad – but I don’t think he ever really gets mad.
Well, I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving dinners this year; I will definitely miss it.  I really like Thanksgiving; mostly for the food.  I don’t think that they celebrate it here in Honduras but maybe me and my companion will go and eat - haha.  My kind of funny story of the weak - well I don’t think I should call it funny; but yesterday we visited some members where the mom isn´t a member and we always invite her to church but she has never come.  She goes to the Catholic church.  So we were sharing with her a little about baptism and how we should be baptized and maybe I was a little too direct because I said they baptize without authority and some other stuff that didn’t go over well because she got mad and told us to leave and not come back.  So I’ll have to go back and apologize in a few days but I had never had that kind of experience before.
Well, I hope you all have a good week.
I Miss and Love You All!!!
Con Amor
Elder Kapple.

November 14th, 2011

Hey everyone!
How is it going?
This week was a pretty good one for us until Sunday came around - haha.  We really worked hard and found a lot of people and had a lot a good appointments.  That´s one thing that I love about my companion - we don’t waste time doing things that we don’t really need to do.  We had a bunch of possibilities for the end of this month too.  But then not all of them came to church on Sunday. We only had 3 investigators in church this Sunday.  Sofia’s daughter and her niece and then a new kid that came too.  It was kind of a bummer because we had 9 baptism prospects for the end of this month.  After church we went to a great investigator’s home who was going to get baptized on the 26th but she told us she doesn’t want to right now.  She says that she wants to wait until February when she´ll be more busy.  She is afraid that if she gets baptized right now she´ll make some mistakes and sin or somthing because she´s not going to be very busy these next few months.  So we helped her set some goals to read and to pray so we´ll see what happens there. Then Sofia didn´t come to church this week either. So hopefully she´ll be able to get baptised on the 26th.  This next week we have to really work hard and change a few things.  We have the goal of 8 baptisms this month and we had one on Saturday (Yordina).  She´s really cool and has a strong testamony.  She´s from Gracias A Dios but will be studyng in Tocoa this next year so she´ll always have a church close by.  We were going to have the baptism of Marlon this last week too but his shoes got ruined so they didn´t come to church.  So we’re going to look for some shoes for him - haha.  So this week was kind of a hard one with the investigators that we have but it was still a good one with the work that we did; we just need to keep on searching to find some more that have been prepared and help the investigators that we have progress a little more.  Keep them in your prayers this week. If anyone has any ideas of how we can help them keep progressing, please feel free to share.  Sorry this is kind of short but we don´t have too much time and I want to try to send some fotos.  But this week we’re going to turn things around.
Thanks for all that you all do for me. It means a lot.
I Love You All!!!
Elder Kapple

November 13th, 2011

November 7th, 2011

Hey how is it going?
This week has been good - but a long one.  I had to go to Aguan and work there from Sunday to Thursday. Trujillo is definitely a better area - haha.  No, but it was good working there.  I really do like working with other missionaries because you can always learn something new from them. But I did get my new comp this week and he is awesome.  His name is Elder Ordoñez.  He is from Tegucigalpa, Honduras and has been out about 8 months in the mission.  He has one younger brother and an older sister who will be getting married in January.  He speaks English pretty well. He can at least say what he needs to.  He´ll be a really good companion.  He likes to work and is always really excited.  We’re going to have a lot of success in this change.  Hopefully that answered all of the usual questions you have about my new companions.  This last week, for the few days that we had working together, we had some good success and ended up having 10 investigators at the district conference here in Tocoa, and about146 people in total.  The conference was really good.  President Veirs and Elder Castro were there so it was good to see them both.  We have 4 fetchas for this weekend.  We have Precede and Pastora.  Precede is awesome; she has a really strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and really just understands everything. Pastora is her sister and is a little mentally handicapped but still seems to understand everything and can talk but is just a little slower.  Then we have Melbin who is the son of Gloria who just got baptized about a month ago.  He is cool little guy.  I think that he is about 9 and is super smart.  Then we also have a girl named Yandira.  She is from Gracias Adios but lives with members here for now.  About a month ago my comp and I gave her a Book of Mormon.  She always came to church but we just didn’t think about teaching her because we knew that she was going to be leaving soon but this last week we passed by with my new comp.  I asked if she had read some of the book and she had and said she knew it was true.  So we challenged her to be baptized.  She is really cool and she will be studying in Tocoa this next year so she will be able to go to church there.  There isn’t a LDS church in Gracia Adios.  We also have Familia Sofia and Gloria for this month but they just need to do a few more things to be prepared so keep them in your prayers.
Well, thanks for everything.
I Love You All!!!
Elder Kapple

October 31st, 2011

Hola mi amorosa familia  - haha,
It sounds like everyone is just doing great and had a good week with stake conference. We have Branch Conference this weekend here in Colon. I hope you all have a fun Halloween today too. They don’t do anything for Halloween here but yes, I will be dressing up as a missionary and we will be going out to trick or treat; but we just do our trick or treating a little bit differently - haha.  I hope you all had fun at the yearly Halloween party at JeNae’s and celebrating grandma’s birthday too.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA, I LOVE YOU.  Well, this week was a really good one. We ended up having our 2 weddings and 9 baptisms.  La familila Mejia (4) L familia Marcia (3) Julio and Audelina.  So that’s what we focused most of our time on this week - getting these weddings and baptisms all planned.  It is not the easiest thing to do to get people married here in Honduras.  We spent an entire day just running around getting all of the things that we needed for the weddings; like all the papers and documents.  I ended up having to pay for the wedding of the familia Mejia but he’s a taxi driver so he always gives us free rides now - haha.  But the baptism went really well and we ended up finishing this month with 15 baptisms with 3 families baptized which isn’t too bad.  And as a zone we tied to be Zona Celestial.  I think this could be the first time that Colon has been Zona Celestial.  On Saturday, the day of the baptism, we showed up at the church and the font was full of water but it was really dirty water and the drain was clogged.  So we spent about 30 minutes emptying the font with buckets - haha.  But it was a really good baptism and we have some great converts here. There are changes this week and my comp. does have a change.  Were in Tocoa right now.  I’ll be here until Thursday waiting for my new comp.  It’s always something really exciting to get a new comp.  You can always learn more from other missionaries.  We should have a pretty good month this next month too.  We have some really good investigators.  I think we´ll be able to baptize  6 to 8 more people.  We have about 5 to 6 investigators right now that are really interested.  So pray for them and we´ll find some others too this month.  I only have 40 pages left to read in the Book of Mormon so I should finish it in these next few days.  I just need to find some time - haha.

Well, it was really good to hear from you all.  I’m glad that everyone is doing fine and dandy.
I Miss and Love You All!!!
Con Amor
Elder Kapple
( PS the computer that I’m on doesn’t have a usb hook up so ill try to send some recordings and pictures from another computer if I can.)

October 24th, 2011

Hello familia y amigos,

It sounds like everyone had a good week, especially mom and dad becoming kids again, going to Lagoon and Park City! This week was good but kind of long.  It has been raining really hard for the past 4 days and when it rains nobody is in the streets and the streets are filled with water so it has been a wet week too.  We ended up not having any baptisms this week because Melvin went to Tegucigalpa.  But for this weekend we have 10 baptism appointments right now.  So this week we have have been focusing a lot on them.  We have Familia Mejilla; they’re going to get married this Friday.  The dad isn’t going to get baptized but the mom and 3 kids are.  But last night we had an appointment with them and the dad opened up and had some questions for us so maybe a little bit later on he´ll get baptized.  Familia Marcia; they’re going to get married this weekend too. The dad is already a member but the wife and kids aren’t, and she hasn’t had the desire to get baptized in the past until now.  The kids always go to church but she just has never liked church until now and we’re helping activate the dad too.  He´s a cool guy.  That’s 3 families in total. Then Melvin, the guy that was going to get baptized this last week.  Then 2 younger people; Julio and Audelina.  So keep all of them in your prayers this week.  We have 2 other really cool investigators right now.  One is named Sofia.  The problem with her is that she can’t read but with her she always feels the spirit while we’re there and she prayed and feels that these things are true.  She hasn’t been to church yet but this week she is going to go.  We also have Precede.  She is a referral from one of the members that is a nurse and they work together.  She has been to church 2 times and could get baptized this week but wants to wait a little bit. This next month shell get baptized and she is really cool.  She takes the Book of Mormon to work and always reads it.  She’ll be a great convert and her sister will get baptized too.  Her sister is a little handicapped but still understands things well.  Pray hard for these investigators that we have right now and for the 10 that we have scheduled for baptism for the end of this week.  I have a lot to read in the Book of Mormon this week.  Pres. Veirs challenged us to read it in these last 2 transfers.  I’m halfway through 3 Nephi so I still have a lot to read in this next week.

I hope you all have a good week.  I bet it’s starting to get cold there.  It has been pretty cold here this week.  I never thought that I would say it, but I have been cold in Honduras -  haha.
I Miss and Love you All!!!
Cuidense,
Elder Kapple