Saturday, June 28, 2014

Happy Birthday dad! Mar 9th, 2014


Mar 9
I love you dad! Thanks for being a great example to me always, especially for serving a mission yourself! An area seventy. Elder Ardern said that because of your mission, even MY kids will be blessed. I know for a fact I've been blessed my whole life.

We had a great week. We worked hard. Our zone is leading the mission with stats right now. We had 117 new investigators as a zone in just one week. and we're expecting 24 baptisms. We had stake conference yesterday and I saw my old Abucay members and investigators!! It was the happiest reunion ever in my life until this point! Its been over a year and a half since I've seen them and they've all gotten so much older!

We had a zone activity because our zone achieved the standard of excellence for baptisms last month. We will again this month!

I'll try and send pictures to you all later.

It's been so hard teaching people that are super hard hearted... We've been teaching masterfully answering every concern and debating/conniving questions with the book of Mormon and our testimonies but people just won't accept anything! Please pray that the Lord will soften the hearts of the people here, The power of prayer is real. 

I love you all and need your prayers. I thank you for everything and every letter/email!

Elder Kapeliela

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Mar 2nd, 2014 Good Evening!!


Mar 2 
 
I'm finally here in my 5th area, Cupang 1in Balanga zone of the Balanga stake. Yes, stake! It's the only stake in the mission! It's been a good start to the week. I have a very obedient, diligent companion named Elder Marfori from Laguna, Philippines. Our house mates are also zone leaders, Elders Yardley and Godinez (my trainie, it's so fun having him in the same house again!) and we are literally gonna set our ward (yes, there are 4 zone leaders in one ward, the stake is split into two zones) on fire! Our hard work has already paid off, the sacrament attendance hit 214 which is the highest it's ever been!!!!!!

It's been so nice to see people that I haven't seen for over a year, they get so shocked when I speak to them since I couldn't as well before. I love them so much! They already know me and trust me so that really helps with getting trust for the ward members, they are even working with us more! We live in an apartment (that has air con ;)) next to a very very active family. It's great!
The first family I baptized, The Sapinoros are still active and the dad just got baptized last month!! Great news huh? I still haven't seen them but I hope to on Sunday since it's stake conference!


I can't wait to see how this area explodes and reaches 250 in sacrament meeting! Keep praying for my ward and investigators! I haven't forgot you in my prayers, stay righteous that the blessings that you need will fall upon you in ways that you will even notice them! I love you all!

Elder Kapeliela

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Baptizing Families!! Feb 23rd, 2014

This has got to have been one of the best weeks of my life!!!!! Let me just give you a quick summary before I type away, rats, demolished. Cornel family, baptized!! Elder Orndorffs little brother, State champion! Birthday money, new shoes and pants! Excited to hear about it?

So I'll start with the rats and end with the family we baptized.

On Monday I bought a rat trap. It's a cage about 20 in. long and 6 in. wide with a door that shuts when they eat the peanut butter bread we put there. About 5 minutes after we put it there set up we caught a big fat rat and killed it (theres no chance of me getting bit, don't worry). The next day we got 3!!!!!!! We got the HUGE one when we used spam with nutella on it (that was our breakfast that day, its soooo good!). We'll probably have another one when we get home too! I love it! It was totally worth 5 dollars for that trap!

Oh ya, Elder Orndorffs little brother won state for heavy weight yesterday. He pinned every kid at the state tournament and went 45-0 for the year and 40 of them were pins. This kids a monster! He's only a junior too, so next year he'll do even better!

Thanks for the money you gave me, All my shoes had holes in them so I am happy for the new shoes I bought! Also I bought some new pants that were much much needed, its hard to have things last long hear, especially since we walk and hike everywhere to be able to get to people haha. It's super dusty here because when grass grows Filipinos rip it out because they think its ugly. I still don't understand that, they should just let their grass grow hahaha. So thanks again!

So last night we baptized a family! The Cornel family! The baptism was packed! The whole mission presidency was there! President, 1st counselor and even 2nd counselor of the whole mission!! Also, pretty much every auxiliary from the branch was there to support! The couple missionaries, who are very critical when it comes to baptisms said, "It doesn't get better than that." It wasn't even us that set up the baptism (it usually is) it was the branch! The branch is sooo awesome! They got excited since it was a family and everyone participated in helping them learn this perfect Gospel. They bore such strong testimonies, they have a firm belief in this Gospel and I know will be great active leaders one day! I wanna go through the temple with them when the time comes next year! Two days before the baptism they had many many trials, the little brother of Brother Cornel died from cardiac arrest in Saudi arabia, 33 yrs old and it hurt him super bad. He never doubted the church though and knew he would be made stronger through those trials. Their conversion story is amazing. Their family was struggling the whole year of 2013. They went inactive from Born-agains, brother was very active back then and even became a missionary, he knows the bible very, very well. Well, sister Cornel prayed in November that the Lord would lead her to the right church where her family could be more stable and established and the next day after work she said, "Something was telling me to talk to a man, it was like a light push and whisper, talk to this man" so she talked to him and asked him, knowing that he was religious, if his church had a bible study. He quickly got her address and texted it to us 5 minutes after his conversation with her (He is an active member of a different branch) and me and my last companion Elder Kidd had been really unlucky that day with lessons and went to the referral right away since we were close. When we got there it was only brother Cornel and the kids. 10 minutes later sister Cornel comes in very confused. She then realized how much Heavenly Father loves them and how fast Heavenly Father answers our prayers. She prayed the night before and we got to her house with the everlasting Gospel before she even got home from work. As soon as she heard about the Word of wisdom she quit coffee, she had been drinking over 5 cups a day. Brother Cornel also received answers to his prayer through the spirit and answered questions that had been bothering him for his whole life. They are such a golden family and is the cutest family at the church every week haha. We sang "I need the every hour" and it sounded amazing. We had some great singers in that mini mens choir. Me and Elder Orndorff swear there were angels singing behind us. 

Well that was my week, and if I get transferred on Wednesday, I'm leaving having kicked some butt in Olongapo.


Love you all!

Elder Kapeliela