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!