11-14th Olongapo Mission Logo and Mission Statement

The Olongapo mission logo and Mission Statement

One of the missionary mom's asked the Mission President if they had a Logo and he was great enough to send this along with this Vision Statement.

Novemeber 3rd Pictures

 

Olongapo City at Night.

Hey!! November 3, 2013

I'm going to the mission home again for another activity! My zone has achieved the standard of excellence 5 months in a row now! Every month brings its challenges but challenges are so prominent in missionaries lives. Resolving them is the most important part. It's what helps missionaries grow so much.
 

I've been loving the city so much, but the hills and mountains haven't seemed to get easier yet. They are way high! But yea, things are getting way expensive here since its a more wealthy part of the Philippines. My area is on the Subic Base so there are American stores and every fast food ever! So it's hard not to spend all of my money haha. The base is really cleaned up now, I haven't seen ANY clubs or anything like that. It's a nicer place actually.

Well, for the first time in my whole mission I got a fever! But don't worry, a member in the branch is a pharmacist and bought me everything I needed and I was fully better after 2 days and now I'm great! I feel good as new! I thought I could get home without getting sick haha. Don't worry about me I'm being really taken care of here!

Last Friday was "All saints day" so everyone goes to their dead relatives and puts candles on them, eats, and just talks about them. We went to check it out since NO ONE was home (they were all at the cemetery). It's a super steep mountain where the graves are and they're out of the ground. It was very beautiful. Anyways, it was a great way to share the gospel. Their were thousands of people.
 

 I love you all! Keep on the right path! It's obvious why, so we can become an eternal family like we are sealed to be!

 

Enjoy the pictures!

 

Elder Kapeliela

October 27th Transferred!

I got transferred to Olongapo like I told you before and it"s AMAZING. It's waaay different than all my other areas before. My old reas were all rice fields, so now I'll be talking and teaching city people. It's funny how HUGE the culture can change here by just driving 2 hours. The language changes, the sense of humor changes, and even their dress. It's mind blowing. But, I am so happy to be here. Olongapo is still a district because of ONE branch. And that's the branch I got sent to. They are lacking in the full tithe paying Mel priesthood, they need 25 and they have like under 20. I'm so humbled to be here, President put so much trust into me it makes me nervous! He really, really wants it to become a stake before he goes home in June so I have a huge miracle to do here, but I don't quite know what it will be yet... pray for my branch here please. They need the blessings of a stake and they deserve it!

 

I cannot believe that I left Botolan felt like home. I even picked up a lot of their dialect Zambale. I loved those humble people so much and can't wait to see them again. I couldn't have done it without some of my awesome companions that were sent to me, and the spirit which was my constant companion. When I first got sent into Botolan branch the average sacrament attendance was 48 with half of them attending all 3 hours. We also had a few kind of trained but humble leaders. I was excited when the branch president showed trust in me and gave me an assignment to talk on the first Sunday. I took full advantage of it to talk on missionary work. Immediately I saw a change in the branch as me and my companion, Elder Urcia diligently talked and taught to as many people as we could. Little by little, our little branch turned into a big group of families from every part of the city. When I left there were 98 members there staying for all 3 hours with a desire to help  the missionaries in as many ways as they could, many times meaning food haha. When I got there, there were 10 active Mel. priesthood holders (including the 2 Elders). When I left there were 20 that had returned or been baptized with close help from the couple missionaries and leaders. There was one member in the ward named Harvey. He had just become our Less Active Return and had started working with the missionaries for the first time when I asked him his office in the priesthood. Shockingly he said none. We soon made him a priest (being a 22 year old) and had him blessing the sacrament instead of the Elders which was a huge blessing since we could then fellowship instead of blessing sacrament. A few months later he got sustained for the Mel. priesthood and got ordained after a few weeks. Soon after that he became the Branch mission Leader! There hadn't been a branch mission leader in over a year so he was a huge blessing for us as missionaries. The day before I left my last area he submitted his mission papers. As in the day before! What a story! This kids amazing! I got there and he was a less active recently returned graduated certified nurse, and when I left, he was a BML with submitted mission papers! I love this kid! Another merit from our work in this branch is that we held the first Priesthood Executive meeting our branch president had ever seen, the first Missionary correlation meeting and Branch correlation meeting. Anyways, the accomplishments in this zone and branch for the month of Oct were 34 baptisms for a zone of 7 companionship and our area had a solid 8 baptisms. I had a total of 27 baptisms for that area who were still all there at church my last day to say bye and endure to the end as newly converted members. I love this work and will always strive to leave my areas better than I left them!

Keep striving to endure to the end and live the gospel to the word! I love you and be careful always! Oh yeah, and buy food storage. As in do it THIS WEEK. 

Elder Kapeliela

Oct 21st Pictures

I love the week I get pictures!!!

October 21st Hey!!

So it's transfers on Wednesday so I believe that I am getting transferred since I've been here 6 months. I will really miss this area I think. Me and my companions have had great experiences here... When I first got here and how it is now are so much different. I'll tell more when it's for sure that I'm getting transferred.

Well there were 4 nights without power and running water so it was a hard 4 days. But we finally got it back and we took advantage of it for sure. We had to shower outside on a pump haha. It was interesting... We also slept in the living room which I swear was about 90 degrees... I had to fan my self to sleep. My companion and roommates told me that I was fanning while sleeping. That's pretty cool! Anyways, thanks again for the box! It literally got there JUST on time. Tell Kathy thank you so so much for her box too! I could understand the Chinese food box's, but I ate it and it was good haha. The taffy was good but it's kinda melted. Oh well! 

Well, at our baptism, the only concern that we had was that there weren't enough baptismal clothes for all the candidates so we had to go to another chapel and borrow some! The branches here are NOT established at all. But we are helping them grow at a very fast pace. When I got here the sacrament attendance was about 50, and last Sunday there were about 100!!

We're seeing the hand of the Lord in our work, and I feel your prayers showering upon me everyday. Always take advantage of the temple since you are so close to it! I wish I were at the temple everyday! You are all so blessed in America, don't forget that. Thanks, and love you all!

Elder Kapeliela

 

 

October 14th Typhoon

Well I'll start off with the craziest stuff that happened. there was a category 3 typhoon that pretty much destroyed my city. My house is completely fine and there were no deaths but man there were so many roofs just chillin' on the roads. We haven't had power for 3 nights now. The first night was the storm and we all woke up at 1:30am from something hitting our house SUPER hard. We were literally just talking story and watching the crazy winds from like 1:30 till 4:30. It was sooooo hot. We're used to Air Con so it was extra hard to coup with. It is so hot here. The past two nights we were able to kinda sleep alright, we all slept in the living rooms. Try praying for our electricity because here if there's no electricity there is no running water and we have to walk to fetch water from a well that smells like rust. Don't worry about drinking water though we have more than enough. I got that box the day before the storm, talk about PERFECT timing. While it was pitch black we were still happy because of all the food!

Other than that our zone is about to set a record for baptisms! We are about to have 40 as a zone! It's literally about to happen. There are only 7 pairs of companions too so this is huge! Our area has 9 baptisms this next Saturday! The work is progressing like crazy, I know the general authorities are praying hard for the missionary work, I noticed that in general conference. Good thing our district center has a generator. We were able to watch general conference after the storm!

This has been a very good and busy week with lots of interviews for the baptisms. Pray that they will continue and we can help make a huge change in this mission. One of these days I'll tell you all our ideas and tactics that have been giving us success, We're changing the way of teaching here.

I really got impressed from the talk of Randy d. Funk. He stated, “When we obey the commandments of the Lord and serve His children unselfishly, the natural consequence is power from God. Power to be able to do more than we would be able to do by ourselves.”
We are literally able to receive power from God. Each one of us. From your decisions earlier to go to church you received power from God. Just imagine the potential we all have on this earth, and realize how powerful we really are. Your all amazing and I love you all! Remember the words of the prophets and remember that you don't need a man living in your home to receive priesthood blessings but only obedience, which I pray we may all have.

Good night!