April 7 April Showers Bring May Flowers

 

That statement above is NOT true, it's super super hot and hasn't rained since I can remember, pray for rain!! The flowers that come out in May will burn instantly its so hot. The past month I have gained all the weight I had lost, I'm getting fed like a cat fish at Wild Waves over here.

This morning I went to a place called mt. Samat in Pilar, Philippines. You should look it up and look up the history, it's got a great history. The Americans and Filipinos held the Japanese there for 4 months with way less men and even more less provisions. Good experience to be there, we got to go up the cross, check out a picture of the place on Google, it was a very reverent place to be and I learned a lot. There was a really nice museum there too.

We had a busy busy week and it flew by. Monday: mission activity, Tuesday: P-day, Wednesday: Mission leaders conference, Thursday: Weekly planning, Friday: Zone meeting, Saturday: All work :) Sunday:church and presidents conference/stake goal setting. It flew by! Lots of learning experiences happened this week. The biggest batch is all going home so the missions getting smaller! 

Transfers are this Wednesday and I think this is my last area so I'm gonna rock it out here in Cupang. It's time for me to give it my all and show what I can do with all my experience. I'm lucky to have the most diligent missionary in the mission (Elder Marfori) as a companion to help me endure to the end of my mission. We're gonna make sure this mission achieves the standard of excellence again and get even more baptisms than last time!. I am for sure sending a letter this week with pictures. It was closed earlier... Sorry. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for the support! Write you next week, much earlier too.

Good morning!

Elder Kapeliela

April 1, 2014

Hey family, I had a great week. We worked really, really hard. We had a service project last Friday where we moved someone out of there house to a new house across the street and helped paint their huge dog kennel and some other things. It was nice to do some genuine hard work again. It feels good serving.

But wow, what a month it has been!!! Our mission made history this month!!! Yesterday we had a mission wide activity at the mission home where we got to play sports, eat roasted pig, have a North vs. South capture the flag game (My South side won!) and watch 17 miracles! All 188 of us in the whole mission! Why? Because we achieved the standard of excellence as a mission for baptisms and less active returns!!! The standard of excellence is 2 baptisms per companionship, and 2 less active returns per companionship. Therefore the standard of excellence was 188 baptisms and 188 Less active returns. We got as a mission 188 baptisms on the dot, and 225 Less active returns. WE DID IT!!! We made history.

Our zone got 14 baptisms and 21 less active returns. There are 14 of us so we got standard of excellence as a zone for baptisms and over achieved for Less active returns! 2 baptisms fell through on Saturday from a couple areas but from smart following up and resolving concerns we got them back!

For me and my companions area we got 3 baptisms and 4 less active returns. One fell through on Saturday but that night we went to their house, solved their concern, and baptized them the Sunday morning right before sacrament meeting!

This was the most stressful, hard, challenging, and trying month of my entire life. We couldn't sleep, couldn't even eat some times we were so stressed and nervous. But all those hours walking in the sun in this summer season, ears on the phone, and sickle to the harvest payed off. I know that this work is true. The Lord gave us those souls. I know the field is white, already to harvest, and that He is hastening his work. This work is true. This is the only true church and I can't hold myself back from telling every person I see. I know my time is winding down but I am tenacious, and only speed up. I know we were called and reserved for these last days because we are the best. Let us show the Lord our best in His work and glory and bring His sons and daughters back to him. I pray every night that you will stay true and faithful till the end. I love you all so much. I love this work so much. I will never forget the true meaning of March Madness.

Elder Kapeliela

March 31st, 2014 MARCH MADNESS!!!

Hey family, I had a great week. We worked really really hard. We had a service project last Friday where we moved someone out of there house to a new house across the street and helped paint their huge dog kennel and some other things. It was nice to do some genuine hard work again. It feels good serving.

But wow, what a month it has been!!! Our mission made history this month!!! Yesterday we had a mission wide activity at the mission home where we got to play sports, eat roasted pig, have a North vs. South capture the flag game (My South side won!) and watch 17 miracles! All 188 of us in the whole mission! Why? Because we achieved the standard of excellence as a mission for baptisms and less active returns!!! The standard of excellence is 2 baptisms per companionship, and 2 less active returns per companionship. Therefore the standard of excellence was 188 baptisms and 188 Less active returns. We got as a mission 188 baptisms on the dot, and 225 Less active returns. WE DID IT!!! We made history.

Our zone got 14 baptisms and 21 less active returns. There are 14 of us so we got standard of excellence as a zone for baptisms and over achieved for Less active returns! 2 baptisms fell through on Saturday from a couple areas but from smart following up and resolving concerns we got them back!

For my and my companions area we got 3 baptisms and 4 less active returns. One fell through on Saturday but that night we went to their house, solved their concern, and baptized them the Sunday morning right before sacrament meeting!

This was the most stressful, hard, challenging, and trying month of my entire life. We couldn't sleep, couldn't even eat some times we were so stressed and nervous. But all those hours walking in the sun in this summer season, ears on the phone, and sickle to the harvest payed off. I know that this work is true. The Lord gave us those souls. I know the field is white, already to harvest, and that He is hastening his work. This work is true. This is the only true church and I can't hold myself back from telling every person I see. I know my time is winding down but I am tenacious, and only speed up. I know we were called and reserved for these last days because we are the best. Let us show the Lord our best in His work and glory and bring His sons and daughters back to him. I pray every night that you will stay true and faithful till the end. I love you all so much. I love this work so much. I will never forget the true meaning of March Madness.

Elder Kapeliela

March 31, 2014 Another....

I had a great experience teaching the other day. We went to a referral that we got on Sunday and taught her (the referral) with such power and spirit. At the end of the lesson after I shared the 1st vision and how Christ told Joseph not to join any sects, the lady looked shocked. I then perceived to ask her what she was feeling, and she told us of a dream she had many many years ago. She portrayed her dream explaining that she was in heaven, and that there were scores of doves amongst the clouds. A man walked up to her who she exclaimed was Jesus Christ. He walked up and said to her, all of these doves are beautiful on the outside, but only one is true on the inside. I then testified to her that what Jesus told her in the dream was what Jesus told Joseph. I revealed to her what it truly meant. That there are many beautiful churches on the outside, but only one true one on the inside. I know how important it is to say all of the doctrine of the lessons. If there is even one little part of the doctrine left out, the people you teach might not have experiences they would have if you said them. If we didn't share the 1st vision in the right way, she might not have remembered her dream. It's so important to give the doctrine fully and to ask inspired questions. It's what the Lord did and what we must strive to perfect. I know there is one one true living church and that's the Church of Jesus Christ of Letter-day saints. She agreed to baptism for the second Saturday of May.

March 16th, 2014 Hi Family!!

Mar 16

I had a great week, in fact I have stuff that I can write about!

Today in basketball I hit 15 out of 18 3 pointers, 3 of them 5-10 ft out of the 3 point line in a game against some Filipinos. They thought we were NBA players after how me and Elder Yardley (an Elder from Idaho who is my house mate) were dropping shots from around the arc. I made a fade away shot in the corner (left side) like Kobe and the Filipinos went crazy. That really helped them want to listen to our message!

Our stake conference hit a record with 1,036 people! That's the most since Elder Holland came (1,079) came to that one. This stake is really progressing!

We've been teaching a family for a couple weeks now, the Capasite family and they are still progressing towards baptism! It's a family of 6 with 4 eligible for baptism. They are getting married and then baptized on the 29th of March! We gave the dad a nice white shirt and tie, and some slacks. The sister was also given a skirt from a member! They are super ready for baptism and have family prayer every night and read the Book of Mormon everyday! We are having a family home evening with them later! I'll have baptized two families within two months after this!

Also, we have an investigator named Jimmy Tallada who is 28 and searching the church diligently to find out if it is true and he has been going to a different ward because he has friends in it but with some help from some fit fellowshippers, he decided to give the ward he's supposed to go to a chance. Yesterday he went to our ward and then the other one as well, so he ended spending 6 hours at church! What an investigator! He has such great faith and has been having many trials. Last week while playing basketball he tripped and fractured his arm and just got out of surgery. We were concerned about his cast because he can't get baptized (he is super excited for his baptism on the 29th) with a cast on so we asked him when it will be taken off and he said, "on the 28th" so we are super excited for him. The Lord has been preparing him. He's an engineer and brilliant with a soft heart and humble purpose. 

The other day we were asked to give a blessing to a baby that had measles. That baby was covered in red spots and rashes, it was hard to look at, and the baby wouldn't stop crying. We preceded with the blessing and ended with the room quiet and the baby silent. The next day, after weeks off fighting the sickness, her skin was pure and she had the biggest smile on her face I've ever seen. Her less active mom since then has changed her ways and has been going to church and reading the Book of Mormon.

Our mission is pumping out records left and right  with baptisms and less active returns. This month the mission is expecting for 216 baptisms which will beat the record by 60. Our zone will be contributing 20 baptisms and my area, 6. 20 would be the record for my zone since their are on 17 of us here. We are doing well and working hard, enduring to the end of our missions.

I love you all and will send some pictures over the mail, the computers are too risky here, Elder Orndorffs memory card got deleted. So I'll just send hard copies. Thanks for your support!

Elder Kapeliela

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

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

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

Aloha!! Feb. 16th, 2014

Thanks for the happy birthdays even though my birthdays not for a couple days haha. There's not really any change from 20 to 21 since an 18 yr old here has the privilege to anything they want to do. They call the year you have in the mission your holy year haha. So My whole time being 20 yrs old I was holy haha. I hope to stay this diligent my whole life, not just on my mission.

Well we have a war at home with a rat. It's about 1 1/2 feet long and fat. We almost caught him this morning but he got the better of us and jumped over our traps and our sticky traps didn't even phase him either haha, we got like 3 baby rats though.

We worked really hard this past week. We taught 5 first lesson lessons to new investigators and got 10 new investigators. Also we had a solid 5 investigators at church. The Cornel family went to church again and passed their baptismal interview. they will be baptized next Sunday. The exciting part about them though is that their oldest daughter, who moved in with her boyfriend a couple months ago and got pregnant, went to church and is starting to change! We are going to try and get her baptized next month.

We also had our zone conference last week and learned a lot. Our president is super funny I love him. We ate KFC for lunch and had a huge lecture about drinking water. I've been drinking (clean) 3 liters of water a day for the past couple of months now. Our president shared a couple cool stories about his mission and his life. As a college student one day he said he saw his teacher in the front of the room tossing his chalk up and down thinking intently saying, "Joseph Smith, Joseph smith, Joseph Smith." When the class started (this was a college course, philosophy) the teacher said, who in this class here are mormon? President said he was nervous and didn't want to stand up but the spirit prompted, "Stand up" so slowly he started to stand up and said, "I am." The teacher had him come to the front of the class room. The teacher asked him in front of the whole class, "How do you know the Joseph Smith is a Prophet?" Nervously, yet guided by the spirit he simply said the words, "I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God." and went and sat down. The room was utterly silent and since that day he said the teacher never mention Joseph Smith or anything about our church again. They all felt the spirit from such simple words. I say that we as missionaries whether full time or not should stop complicating things and speak simply when testifying to our friends and family of the truths of the gospel.

So in respond to a question, in our mission we only have 1 stake but my district is really really close to becoming a stake, we're working really hard to make it happen.

I love you all so much! Keep the faith!

Elder Kapeliela

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIANCA!!! FEB 9TH, 2014

I hope you had a great birthday and ate a ton. My two missionary friends went to Hong Kong for the weekend to get some passport stuff done and loved it, get there safely and try to come back before July!

Good morning/good evening family! Happy Valentines week! Next week is my birthday. I think for a celebration were gonna eat some balut hahaha.

So you all asked some good questions so I'll just reply here.

I hope you had a good week! What are some of the highlights?

The highlight of the week was when the family we are teaching came to church and really participated in all the class! It's the Cornel family and they will get baptized on the 23rd of February! It's a family of 7 but only 4 are of the right age or worthy to get baptized but the others will follow  soon! Its a couple and 5 girls hahaha. Yeah, 5 girls, it reminds me of the Shaw family which reminds me of Jake Heeps which reminds me about football which reminds me about the seahawks WOOOOO GO SEAHAWKS!

 What are the differences between the other area's and Olongapo for you? 

The difference here in the city is all the pollution going into my lungs and the mountains. My other areas had no big buildings, pollution or mountains. And the people here are a little bit more hard hearted and hard to invite to learn. Missionary work in my past areas has been mostly inviting people to learn and here its all about referrals. 

Are you noticing the difference between the really poor area's and the city people? 

There is rich and poor people in every area but in the city they are pretty much all way better with money. Every single person that we teach here gives us something to drink and eat.  In my last area that was super super rare!

How is your zone doing?

Last month we didn't do very well, a lot of investigators got married this week and got baptized this week so this month is gonna be a very high baptizing month. We already have 3 baptisms and 14 less actives return and the month just started. We are expecting 24 baptisms and 32 less actives return. 

How many referrals have YOU given this month? Year? Your life? Its the best way to do missionary work. You need to give them often, it's all the missionaries hope for from you member missionaries!

Our mission is super pumped up and ready to get over 200 baptisms this month! Our mission got over 1,200 baptisms last year and this year we're going for over 2,000 and I know we can do it! Everyone seems to be stepping up! I'm super excited to be in the mission during this hastening of the work. 

Well, I would have pictures but the card reader is not working. 

I love you all! Keep the faith!

Elder Kapeliela

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Feb 2nd, 2014 Seahawks!!

Me and my companion are lovin' this Seahawk victory! (Hes from Spokane). I hope they win again next year!

I had a great week where we got to teach the Cornel family and commit them for baptism. They are so ready to become members. Sister Cornel, the mom (and the most receptive one) had received an answer to her prayer twice now and entirely quit coffee! She hasn't drank it for over two months now and she was addicted before. As in 5 -7 cups a day! I love it! We also had 8 less actives at church and 6 investigators and they are all progressing! We have investigators set up to be baptized this month and next month! 

It got super hot this week. Its hot season now. You get no break here in the Philippines from always being wet because its either pouring rain or so hot that you sweat a ton. Sometimes I take 3 showers a day just to stay cool. How's the weather in Seattle? Did it even snow?! I miss the clean air, it's super smoggy here in the city. I hope I'm not losing hours of my life because of it haha.

I hope you were all able to read the Liahona from January about Joseph Feilding Smith, it was fantastic. That prophet truly was pre-ordained, wow. 

Keep reading your scriptures everyday and having family and personal prayers and attending all church meetings possible. It's a requirement. Its something so simple but eternity changing. Love you all!

Elder Kapeliela

Jan 26th BOX!

Good morning Family!

We had a leadership training meeting this week and we discussed a lot of rules and basketball, which was previously prohibited, is now allowed so we got to play this morning and it was amazing!! I'm on week 4 on the Air Alert jumping program and its a blessing that I can play basketball now so I can get that jumping muscle memory going! I have a goal to dunk before I go home. The program I'm doing is supposed to give me an extra 8-13 inches haha. OH YA! I got the package finally! All of my roommates and I agreed that it was the best package EVER!!!! And the jump rope really helps with the program I'm doing! But the food is destroying my diet! But that's okay, I'm sharing with everyone haha.

So the transfers got super messed up on me since their is a new mission president coming in. The new transfer is on June 18th instead of July 2nd. There's gonna be an 8 week transfer so that the mission president doesn't get put in the mission at the start of a transfer. Its really messed up because my two options are August 13th of July 18th. President Querido told me to go home on June 18th so that we could interview and have a going home party with him! Crazy right?

The work is going really well now here in Olongapo, we had 10 less actives at church yesterday! We are teaching over 50 people and our family accepted their baptismal goal date for February 15th!

I'm super thankful for this box and these ties are perfect! thanks Bianca for those sick ties and tie clips! I can't thank everyone for every little thing so just thank you all for everything!

Love you all!

Elder Kapeliela

1-19-14 Go SEAHAWKS!!!!

Jan 19
 

Hey family! I had a great week with Elder Orndorff! We have been working harder and harder every week and it has been paying off! The family that we are teaching WENT TO CHURCH AGAIN!!! WHOOOOA!!! I love this family, please pray for them, the Cornel family.

This is in response to a email from mom:

biggest challenge: My biggest challenge is when you go to ALL all your plans and back-up plans with-in like 2 hours and they are ALL busy and you look at the clock and it's 4 o'clock and you have a whole day to work with nowhere else to go so the rest of the day is tracking. 

Biggest concern: 
My biggest concern is I always want to make sure that the Lord is pleased with what I am doing. Sometimes you fell like your not doing enough so I am always making goals and plans to make sure I improve.

biggest success: My biggest success was my 3rd area because I left the area a lot better than I got it.

favorite person this week:My favorite person this week is Sister Aida (Our recent convert that is 79 yrs old) because despite her absolutely evil husband she has been with for over 55 yrs she still hasn't left him. And also, despite the persecution she gets from members of her old church for becoming a latter-day saint, she is still always there on Sunday with a huge 1 tooth smile.

This week we found out that a brand new Dairy Queen just opened up here in Olongapo so were gonna hit that up later today!!! Is anyone excited for me?! 

I love you so much family! Never give-up in ANYTHING. Especially in this gospel, we will have eternal life with we live it right. I have an assignment for you all. IN the Gospel principles book read the last chapter on Exaltation and read the list of things you need to do in order to inherit all the Father has. It is awesome, read it please. Will you do that?

Well, I love you so much family! Your always in my prayers!

Elder Kapeliela

GO SEAHAWKS! 

Jan 12th Happy Birthday Mom!!

Jan 12

 

Maligayang bati! maligayang bati! Maligaya, maligaya, maligayang bati! I hope you had a great 33rd birthday! ;)


I had a great week! It was super windy due to the typhoon forming in the south and low pressure so I actually got cold for one of the first times in my mission, and for the 2nd time on my mission I didn't even use an electric fan (except for the black outs)! I looooove wind!

So last week started off really fun! On Wednesday we went to the mission home to sort out some donated care packages and met President Querido's brother and I got to see Presidents son again who recently graduated for BYU-H. We ate puting, which is a gravy cheese fries thing. It's a Canadian thing apparently (his brother lives in Canada). Then after we finished sorting things out President Querido worked with us at the family we are teaching and we gave a great lesson. President is coming with us again today to conduct this families first family home evening!

I went on exchanges twice last week. My first companion was Elder Mariner from Samoa. He's huge. He went to a gym and we wanted to share with them so we said if he can lift 170 kilos they have to listen so he did it ten times!!! The bar was bending like crazy too! hahaha. He's a BEAST. We had a great time and taught some GREAT lessons.

My second companion from exchanges was Elder Trias. He has actually been in 3 missions now. His first was South Africa (He is suuuper fluent in English) but because of some civil unrest got transferred to the Tacloban mission where he was assigned in the heart of Tacloban and after the storm got transferred here. He told me 2 hours of heart breaking, traumatic and inspiring stories of EVERYTHING that happened during the storm from start to finish. I can't even describe how blessed those missionaries are that they survived. He's a fun missionary to work with and we found some very ready people to teach to.

Wednesday is transfer day so stand-by a couple days and I'll tell you what happens!

Mahal ko kayong lahat!

Elder Kapeliela

More pictures of the Philippines 1-5-14

1-5-14 Pictures

                                  

Here's some pictures for you!


The kids birthday was during the holiday season so they went all out with the food.

This is on top of a house in a cemetery (the one where I took a pic of the candles on Nov 1)


Elder Kapeliela

                                       

Manigong bagong taon! 1-5-2014

Happy new year!

This was by far the best new years I have ever had. Although last years was kind of fun (our neighbor was shooting his revolver in the air). But this year I was in Olongapo where people have enough money to buy fireworks. Literally, everyone bought the sickest, biggest, and most fireworks I have ever seen. Plus, EVERY single house was BLASTING the latest Beyonce, Katy Perry rap/hip hop songs that just came out literally straight into our windows until 2 am so We could not sleep very well and I can't say we didn't dance a little haha. All the members were feeding us like crazy. But on new years day we didn't go to one members house, we straight up tracked like boss's and invited like, 20 people to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ! We ran into a ton of drunks haha. I'll send some pictures of my feasts. Last Saturday was really hard since we were fasting. We had to deny pineapple, spaghetti, and ice cream. The only hard part about that is that they get mad if you reject their food.


We had a super successful week with the work. The past hasn't been as successful because of the holiday season and a lot of the less actives and investigators went to other cities and stuff. But last Sunday we had a full Elders Quorum and full sacrament room! We also had 6 investigators, 4 of which were a family! They are progressing well!

I have never worked so hard I think in my whole mission than I did last week. We climbed waaay over 2000 stairs and contacted many souls. It feels great and you can feel that joy of being a missionary in your own lives over in the promised land (America). We cannot be exalted unless we share this gospel so share, share, share and get used to it. This is a good habit to obtain.

Elder Kapeliela

12/29/2013 Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas family!

We had a really hard week because no one wants to get taught on Christmas!! We did talk to a lot of people though. I love inviting people to learn, especially hear in the Philippines because they will all say okay, come back. The only problem is, when we come back they either hide, yell at us to leave sending there dog out, say they're too busy, or rarely say come in. But the initial first talk with them is really fun, Filipinos are hilarious.

For Christmas Eve we went to President Magrada's (the 2nd counselor) and ate American meat and chili Hot dogs. Than on Christmas we went to a members house ate and jammed the guitar and piano, I learned a lot of Christmas songs on the guitar!

Thanks for all that money you guys gave me! I needed it super bad! haha. When again is Bianca going and coming back to China?

I hope you all got what you wanted and gave what others wanted! Hopefully it snows again for you guys! I miss snow bad, its hot season over here.

We baptized an elderly woman (79 yrs old) the other day, Aida Abadilla. She is still strong and walking a long ways to go to church.

I got to sing in a choir for the branch yesterday, I had a solo haha, it was perfect for my range. No mom, nobody recorded it haha. But it sounded okay, except for some others haha.

I love you guys a lot! Go to church, don't go by the church, go to the church. Read the scriptures and share the gospel or we won't have the blessings we need, it's simple.

Elder Kapeliela

Dec 22, 2013

Dec 22, 2013 

This day was the day I got to see my son via Skype! He looks great and it was an awesome to talk with him. Here's his letter! :)

 

It was nice to skype all of you! I don't need to write anything too long. I miss you all so much and will talk to you next year in May! Make your Christmas centered on Christ. Merry Christmas!

Dec 15th

The week started off pretty bad for my companion. He had a really, really bad day last Tuesday. While on the way to district meeting he hit his head on a roof (yeah, we're that tall here) and got a gnarly scratch that left a scar from his forehead, over his eye lid to his cheek. We laughed that one off and then went to district meeting. After the meeting we went to McDonalds to eat. When he got all his food on a tray and started walking towards the table he tripped and all the food fell and spilt all over him. We were able to laugh that one off a little too. Well I did the laughing and he did the offing haha. Anyways, the day rolled on (get how I said rolled) and we were headed down a giant cliff/stairway and were hustling to get down in time for our appointment. While hustling I got about 20 steps in front of my companion, looked behind me and saw my companion on his butt holding his ankle. He had stumbled a bit and twisted his ankle. His ankle swelled as big as big as an average size red fire extinguisher I swear, he not a small guy either, he's 6' 3" 270 pounds. He's a beast though and was able to walk to a Jeep. that kind of stopped the momentum we had for the start of the week and we had to stay home all day except at the end of the day when I got a branch missionary to stay home with my companion and the 2nd counselor of the mission to work with me. The rest of the week went that way until Friday when he went out with me again.

We only had 15 lessons, but through them we got 7 investigators to go to church. 4 was a family of a mom and dad and two daughters, the other was a mom and her daughter and the other was our 79 yr old grandma! She's getting baptized this Saturday. Our zone is doing really, really well! Through the trials and rejections the works still Rollin forth.

That Christmas devotional last night was amazing. I hope you all got to watch it. Elder Nelsons talk was really, really inspiring. I want you all to hear it! Don't forget the true meaning of Christmas. I have some cool new ideas for Christmas traditions we can do! I'll write it to ya'll in my letters!

Take it easy, I love you all!

Elder Kapeliela

Dec 15th

A lot is happening :)

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Yes, they are cockroaches!!

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Pictures 12-8-13

    

    

                                       

                           

     

New Companion!! 12-8-13

I have a new companion now! Elder Orndorff from Spokane, Washington! He was in the same house as me a year ago in my second area. The government here is holding his moms donation and is demanding money (tax) before they give it to president. So make sure that you only send through LBC, LBC is totally fine. The government is super, super corrupt here.


Thanks for that awesome update about the fundraiser! I'm excited for this thing! That picture doesn't even depict the damage at all, I've seen things that came from real cameras that make that picture look like a 5 star hotel. there is literally no buildings standing in one area for miles. There are 2 survivors that moved to our branch because they don't have a house anymore. There is nothing standing and mom, 1,000 deaths is wrong. I asked the people coming from the storm and they said there are easily over 10,000 deaths. The government is lying, their are too many... The average house here has like 5 people in it so there are tens of thousands dead. Careful how you send things because the government will capture it and demand hundreds of dollars of taxes. President Querido is getting sick to his stomach because of this government.

Tell me how it goes!

We moved houses which was another miracle, I didn't like my old house, it was too small and hot. The other day President said, isn't your area closer to the house in the city? and we said yes, so he said go move there tomorrow. So now we live with the other zone leaders and its a party. We have 3 Americans and one sri langcin, he's suuper funny. I'm glad

to be there haha. How is the ward in University Place? Any new girls my age? hahahaha. Nope.

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I'm hungry, we're going to Army and Navy today and eating burritos. I looove Olongapo haha.

I love you all! Your all in my prayers!

Elder Kapeliela