Elder Caden Kapp: Ceduna Sacrament and Emus

Ok like, what a great week!

Y'all are probably sick of me saying that but I'm loving the work. This email might be long, or it might not be. Guess you'll have to read to the end and find out;).

I'm going to start with our exchange this week. The exchange was with the Whyalla Elders. My companion and I felt very strong that I should go with Elder Keller. So we told them and they said us two would be going to Ceduna. I was very happy with the opportunity to go again. On our drive over we saw an emu. I haven't seen one in the wild until then so it was super cool. Such funny looking animals. Once we got to Ceduna (A total of 8 hours of driving for the day) we had a lesson with two of their friends from Peru who actually work at the motel we always stay at. They let us use the dinning room for the lesson and it went absolutely amazing. They absolutely loved Restoration and are super keen. After that we got dinner at Bills Pizza as always. The pizza lasted us three meals, so good!

The next day was busy. We were having the first sacrament meeting in Ceduna so our day was focused on teaching about the Sacrament and then inviting everyone to come. One thing about Aboriginals, they love Jesus and everything we have to share, but they love their sleep more. So morning church was going to be a big faith tester. We had some amazing lessons throughout the day. We got to go to town-camp and teach a group of indigenous people there. We were also able to give the sacrament to a couple of members who were unable to attend on Sunday. Then to close off the day, we had a baptism interview with their friend Adrienne Kennedy. It was such a spiritual experience. I love doing baptism interviews. She's ready and excited for her baptism. She'll be the first baptism in Ceduna. So cool! Then that night in our Motel room, I looked at the wall and it was moving. Turns our it's like this 9 inch centipede. It took us smacking it with the shoe three times to kill it. But we got it.

Finally, it's Sunday. We spent the morning driving around trying to wake people up for Sacrament. One of the members of the branch drove a couple hours to be apart of it and it went absolutely amazing. We had it on the sand like 15 feet from the ocean. This experience was definitely one of the biggest blessings I've seen on my mission. Definitely a blessing to be apart of it. Everyone who came out loved it and said they felt the spirit so strong. After that, we drove to Whyalla, ended exchanges, then drove home in the dark. It's honestly such a vibe driving through the bush in the dark. Between the two days of driving, I drove 17 1/2 hours. I'm so exhausted, but hey, we got it done.

Okay so that's part of the week. The part in our area was absolutely amazing as well. We had some amazing lessons. We have some indigenous friends we've been trying to see and finally had a lesson and it went so amazing. They had two massive pit bulls who were the sweetest dogs. Funny story, earlier that day while door knocking we saw someone chasing a massive pit bull so we dropped our bags and joined in, and eventually the dog was caught. Some fun exercise to mix things up haha.

On top of that we had an amazing lesson with our friend Sokol. He's doing great! Then we had a lesson with the Anderson brothers and they are doing so great.

And finally we had a dinner with some Filipino members and had tons of Filipino food. And to add the cherry on top, I ate with my hands. With permission! Like, dream come true!!! Little me would be jumping off the walls. And to close the day, we had the Filipino duck egg thing. So gross! But I had to do it.

My spiritual thought comes from general conference as a whole. In conference the word covenant was used 194 times, and the word temple was used 179 times. I think there's a theme that God wants us to know. So as you watch or reread conference, keep a look out for those terms.

Well I love you all and hope you have such a good next week. I promise whoever emails me this week, I'll email back next week.

-Elder Kapp