Transfer Call This Week

 Hola everyone!

   This week was super great!!! We had a lot of big stuff happen which was amazing. So last Monday we had zone pday! So that meant loads of volleyball haha. On Tuesday we went around the University campus and were able to talk to a lot of people. We also had a lesson with our friend Darrel. Then we went to the Bramfords for dinner. They're literally my favorite people ever. 

   Wednesday we had meetings in the morning. And later in the day we saw brother Cross. I love our visits with him. Then after that we went to the temple!!! I love the temple so much. Literally my most favorite place on earth. Thursday we had zone conference. Oh what a blast it was. We had some great teachings. We had an amazing lunch and it was good to catch up with people and talk with President.

   Friday was good. We did some good finding. Went to go visit some friends and start getting stuff prepared for Andrew's baptism. And at night we had two Elders stay with us. So we played Catan and had a blast. On Saturday was Andrew's baptism! I played the piano for it and did a musical number. It went super well, it was probably the greatest experience on my mission so far. So proud of him and his decision to get baptized. After the baptism we taught English class for one of our friends. Then we went and saw some members in our ward. Then Sunday we had church which was amazing. And went to Andrew's confirmation. Then we saw a bunch of members and were able to share messages with them. And we saw from friends. It was super good.

   "Trust becomes real when we do hard things with faith. Service and sacrifice increase capacity and refine hearts. Trust in God and each other brings heaven’s blessings."-Elder Gerrit Gong. It's one thing to say we trust, it's another to show the trust.

   I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Talk to you next week.

   -Elder Kapp 

Temple

Baptism

Me not looking at the camera

Baptism 2.0

Two weeks to go

 Hey everyone!

   Dang I only have two weeks left in this transfer. It seriously flew by so fast. I'm really hoping that I get some change next transfer. The ward I'm in is amazing and the area is super tough but I love it, but also I'll have been here with the same companion for 4 and a half months. So I'm pretty sure president will move one of us. I'm fine either staying or leaving haha.

   This week was pretty decent. The highlight is definitely exchanges because it just was. But we'll get into that later. To start the week we had pday. Our district was supposed to go bowling but there was like a four hour wait. So instead we went shopping and got lunch which was super great. We went to this American burger place and I thought it was pretty good. After that we just went to the chapel and played loads of ping-pong. 

   So this week it was our goal to visit more members. So Tuesday we had a couple set appointments with some less active members and then we just went around trying to visit other members in the area. Do y'all remember my friends Andre and Toualla? They're members who we'd see every week but the place they're at stopped letting us see them because we were missionaries and had to have appointments from above. So it's been awhile but I wanted to see them. The sisters would run into Andre on the street because they live down the road from them. So we went there and I went to the office where the people worked. Elder Jian tried it first but he's just too nice. I told them we wanted to see them not to convert them because they're already members of our church. We just wanted to make sure they're doing ok and alive! It obviously was because of my sweet personality they let us see them. 

   So yeah, we saw loads of members this week. It was super great. We also had some super great lessons with our friends we've been teaching. Ok now time for the exchange. So Thursday night I went to Firle with... Elder Oliphant! Oh man was he excited to be stuck with me for 24 hours haha. The first night we played ping-pong, and yeah just chilled. The next day we planned and went out. We went to the city for a lesson but the guy didn't show. BUT, when we were walking to the bus we talked to these two guys who were doing some city work, and one was interested in hearing a message. It was super crazy and good. After that we went to the chapel and I showed Elder Oliphant how to play the piano. That was beast. Get ready for a baller Facebook post. Then we had a lesson with one of their friends. It was much just a Bible bash with their friend and the member we brought. But that's ok, he was super nice and hopefully accepts the gospel. After the lesson we went and saw one of the new members of their ward! We had a beast lesson with them. The zone leaders picked us up from the lesson, took us to get my stuff and then to Hungry Jack's. They went to pick up the other Elders so we just walked to the Morialta flat. So yeah that's the exchange.

   The next day is moving day. So we're moving into the flat we used to live. Wasn't very excited for that but whatever. When we were leaving our neighbors came out and said goodbye to us. I'll miss them for sure. So yeah that's my week. We have Andrew's baptism this Saturday. We started teaching him and put him on date and handed him to Firle to finish. I'm so excited for it. It's going to be awesome. Other than that, we don't have anything too crazy set for this week. 

   In church we had a combined 5th Sunday lesson taught by bishop. It was on marriage (doesn't apply to me quite yet). But something that was said that I loved was doing a task or what they were talking about being in a marriage, you and the person shouldn't be doing 50/50. For it to work the best and for you to get the best result you both should be giving 100/100. Sometimes 10% is all you can give and that it is your 100%, but still give that 100%. We just need to strive to be giving our all in everything we do. If we do then the outcome will be so much better with whatever it is with. I'm not giving marriage advice (even though I'd be a great marriage counselor. They don't call me the love doctor for nothing), I'm saying with Heavenly Father we shouldn't have the mindset of I'll do my 50% and he'll do his. It should be, "I'll give it my all and he'll fill in the gaps I miss or need help with." This leads to growth and answers. And yes, in some cases, a happy marriage.(;

   Hopefully that came across clear and not super random and weird. Well I love you all. I hope you have the most amazing week because you all deserve it. I'm glad I have every one of you in my life. Talk to y'all next week!

Exchange

Shopping

The new fit

Random photo

Literally Just Talked to Y'all

 Hey Everyone!

   Literally just sent out an email so this is weird. Well literally nothing big happened since the last email so this one will be a lot shorter. So, sorry in advance about that.

   Ok so Wednesday was pretty good. It was our pday. Us and the Firle Elders went to the city. We went to some different stores and just chilled. It was pretty fun and good to get out of the area haha. After the city we went to the chapel and played volleyball for the rest of the day.

   We had some super great lessons this week. And on Thursday we had our last dinner with Sister Robertson for a while because she's going to China for 5 weeks. If I get transferred it could have been the last time I saw her. After dinner with her we had volleyball night with our ward. We had friends and ward members come out and play. It was a lot of fun. 

   We had two English classes this week. One on Friday and then one over zoom on Saturday. Both went super well. We're getting the one from zoom set up to attend the classes in the city. The rest of the week was full of appointments falling through. Which sucks but people have their agency. They just got to stop being silly gooses. We had a ward baptism yesterday which was super baller. I love the family who had the baptism so of course I was going to the baptism. And then yesterday we had dinner with a couple who just got back from their mission. The bike ride was 30 minutes all up hill. Their house was in the hills. The dinner was super great. They had loads of extended family there and Brother Phipps came. I love that guy. It was a blast of a time. After we shared a messaged we had a sketchy bike ride home. Part of it through Morialta Falls. That would've been super cool if it wasn't pitch black. But we made it.

   So yeah that's my last couple of days. If you all have time, definitely check out this song: "Here I am Again." It's in the 2023 youth album. It's a good reminder that no matter the challenge or situation, we will never be alone. 

   I love you all! Thanks for all you do and for all the love and support! Talk to you in a week.

Door Knocking

Flower

My Fav Dog

Super Crazy Spiritual Week

 Hey everyone!

   Man this week was crazy. Sorry I'm sending this email today but our Pday got moved this week. Such a spiritual and super stellar week! One of the best yet.

   Monday April 10: We had pday! It started with some great service. Lots of shoveling dirt. Then we called our fams and the rest of the day was just loads of volleyball. I'm getting so good.

   Tuesday: We saw a couple of friends today. Then we spent most of our day at the college. We walked around and door knocked a lot. Not gonna lie, people are pretty chill there. No mean old people. A lot of people let us share a message with them and some told us we could come back. It was super lit.

   Wednesday: Today was flat out amazing. We started the morning teaching our friend Andrew. The spirit was so strong it was amazing. And so we asked him if he'd be baptized and he said yes!!! Omh I thought I was going to throw up some spirit cause it was amazingly strong! We're so happy and proud of him. Then after our lesson we had our district council meeting. Which was amazing as always. Then after that we went and saw my good old friend brother Cross. He's someone our ward has asked us to see often. Our chats with him go on for a very long time. But I look forward to them every time. After seeing brother Cross we then met with Elder Yeow who just started his mission! It's so awesome calling him Elder Yeow now. He's someone who has been such a good friend to us from the start. So we went out and door knocked with him and it was so awesome. 

   Thursday: So today we started with weekly plan and study. Then we tried seeing some friends in the morning. After that we door knocked up to our lesson with Mahesh. That lesson went so great! We read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him and he's really starting to take interest in it. After seeing him we went and had dinner with Lwin and Sister Robertson. As always it was so amazing. Then after that we started exchanges with the Firle Elders. So Elder Jian went to Firle with Elder Oliphant and Elder Bushell came to Morialta with me.

   Friday: To start our morning we had a lesson with my friend I met on Facebook who lives in South America. We talked to him over zoom and talked to him about meeting missionaries where he lives. And he was very excited about that which was awesome to hear. So we got him all set up and we'll see where it takes him. After that lesson we had studies and went to the chapel to have a lesson with our friend Andrew. That lesson went really well. Everything we taught he understood and accepted. So that was super rad. We tried to see some members which was awesome. And then the rest of time we just went door knocking. At first it went literally nowhere. Not a single person interested. So we prayed and felt like we should try this other street. And we were able to find two people on it! It was such a miracle. We set up return appointments with them and both people accepted our invitation to read the Book of Mormon. After that we went to Firle and ended the exchange. It was a super great time!

   Saturday: Today was a day of appointments just falling through. I swear everything was just going nowhere. We went to schedule teaching appointments and no one would be home, or people canceled last minute. Just one of those days. So we bussed to see some members. And we missed our second bus and the busses here suck on weekends so we had to wait a while. We went and were able to share messages with a couple of members and one family asked me to play the piano for them. It was very out of the blue and a first for me. Then after it was pouring rain. And Elder Jian and  I had to wait an hour for our bus. #Memory

   Sunday: We had general conference today! We were able to have some friends come and it was a super great time. Then after we went home, ate lunch, and then watched the next session at the chapel. After that it was time to start our mission tour. So a mission tour is like a zone conference but with the whole mission. So the NT flew down and everyone came. It was a three day event and it was so amazing. The people that came were Elder Nattress (President of the Pacific area), Elder Nash (Director of the Missionary department), President Johansson and all their wives. So Sunday we talked a lot about our mission purpose. It was super lit.

   Monday: We had our mission tour to start the day. Today they started with a Q&A. And then talked a lot about invitations and commitments. It was super awesome and they gave great advice. Then after we had subway for lunch which was just so amazing. Then we left and did some service for a family who just moved. They told us they just needed help sorting and unpacking boxes. Yeah nope. We had to move an old piano along the side of their very long house, which us all mud and super narrow so only four of us could fit. It took a while but it got done. And then Elder Jian and I shoveled loads of mud so they can do concrete soon. Oh and we were in our proselyting clothes. And then we helped move and unpack boxes. Honestly I love service so I was fine doing whatever.

   Tuesday: Our last day of our mission tour. So we started with a Q&A. Then we talked a lot about using technology and getting members excited about mission work. It was so awesome to learn more about both topics. Getting good at both will help the work really progress. After conference we had sandwiches for lunch and took a mission picture. Then  Elder Jian and I had to leave because we had a lesson with Andrew. The lesson again went amazing! He is understanding and accepting everything he's reading and learning. It's super beast! After our lesson we went and dropped off a gift to our friend Win. Win was the student living with sister Robertson who we've been teaching. He leaves back to Thailand tomorrow so we gave him a Thai Book of Mormon with our testimonies in it and Peanut M&M's. There perfect combo if you ask me. 

   So yeah that was my crazy week! It was such an amazing week though. My little thing I have to say this week is remember all that the Savior did for you. He went through so much pain and sorrow for you personally. I just want you to ask yourself, how are you using what he's given you? 

   I love you all! As always, thanks for all the love and support! Talk to y'all in a couple of days haha.

   -Elder Kapp

Important person #1 (Elder Nash)

Important person #2 (Elder and Sister Nattress)

Rain

Random photo

Happy Easter!

 Hey Everyone!!!

   How are you all doing? Hope you all had a super amazing Easter! This week was so so amazing for us! To start, we had zone pday on Monday. That was a blast as usual. We played loads of volleyball and had Costco pizzas. The combination for a perfect pday. Then on Tuesday we had service for the member who has a 16 acre property in the mountain (just a hill). And that night we had dinner with my favorite members, the Bramfords!!! We talked a lot about Bluey, JarJar Binks, and I had my first hot crossed bun. Pretty productive dinner if you asked me.

   Wednesday we had our district meeting and after we got Elder Delahunty. So we all thought we'd be in a trio, turns out we're not. He was just with us for a couple of days. Super bummed about that, I loved the time we had. He's a super stellar missionary. That day we visited less actives and found two new friends to teach. Then later we had dinner with our stake president. Super awesome day. Then on Thursday we had transfers. That took forever because of interviews and what not. But later in the day, we had a lesson with one of the friends we met the day before. It went amazing! She was accepting everything so well. 

   Then with Friday we started with English class. I love teaching English classes. They're so much fun. I find it a problem though when I'm learning things... Anywho, after that we just went out finding all day. That's pretty much all that happened. Saturday was amazing. We had a lesson with someone I met on Facebook who lives in Argentina. He's the coolest guy ever. He wants to meet with missionaries and go to church so that was awesome. Crazy to see how much technology plays in missionary work. Then after that we had a lesson with Karl. He's the newly baptized member in our ward. The lesson went really well actually. We were super happy with it. Then after that we had a lesson with one of our friends we met door knocking last week. We had a great lesson with him. He still doesn't know what he wants but he accepted our invitation to read the Book of Mormon. Then after that we had a not so awesome lesson with one of our friends. He just has his mind made up that he doesn't want religion. Which is his choice, he's still super awesome with us. Then after that we had a lesson with a less active member we've been reteaching. It went so well. The spirit was so strong and he is progressing amazingly. And spoiler but he came to church on Sunday. After our lesson we did a ton of less active member visits and most of them were successful. It was pretty awesome.

   Now Easter. Today was so awesome. So we had our special Easter service and had three friends we're teaching come. One of them being Ben. He's the one we met door knocking who asked us to come back. After the service we gave him a tour with Brother Catalini (ward mission leader) and then us four had a lesson. This last week he read up to Jacob and brought a conference talk he found on our church website. The lesson went amazing. He's coming to church again next week and invited us to go hiking with him sometime. Then right after that, we had a lesson with a referral. He's from China so his first language is Chinese. But he is so receptive. He asked if he could meet us at the church Wednesday and Thursday for lessons. We're super excited about it. Then later in the day we just door knocked up to dinner. We had dinner with the Rice family and it was super awesome. I love this fam. There were a bunch of people there for the holiday. It was good to celebrate the holiday with a family.

   So yeah that's my week for y'all. With the Easter Holiday, just remember our Savior and what we did for you personally. Sometimes we get distracted with the celebrations and stuff. But remember we wouldn't have these Holidays if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. A great scripture to read is 2 Nephi 2: 6-8. Happy Easter everyone. I love you all!

   -Elder Kapp

Ice cream run

Literal cathedral house

Sunset

District before the growth

Transfers

 Happy general conference week!

   Fun fact, our ward won't watch general conference for two weeks. So if Jesus comes then I politely ask for someone to let me know. Let's see what happened this week? 

   Monday: I think I already talked about it, but we went on a hike in the rain. Can't get any better than that. But we got subway after and played spikeball so it was good. And today we have zone pday at our chapel. That means lots of volleyball and not a stupid long bus ride. 

   Tuesday: So today we did service for a ward member. She has a 16 acre property and lots of trees. So we've been raking and will be doing it for the next month. But she made us apple pie, so can't complain. The rest of the day looked like one lesson, door knocking, Facebook finding, and practicing a song for Facebook with Elder Oliphant and Sister Mataiti. Then we had another service with the Elders quorum. 

   Wednesday: Started with district council as usual. After that we all went and got lunch. Then we finished the song we were doing. After that we went and had a visit with one of our friends. Then we saw some members. Some of them really needed someone to talk to. So that's what the rest of the day looked like. We also were able to do some finding.

   Thursday: Not a whole ton happened today. We had cleaning to do for our flat inspection Friday. So we went to town cleaning. Then after that we went finding. We did that up to dinner with Sister Robertson. For dinner we made dumplings and one of the friends we're teaching came. We had a fun time cooking. And had a great dinner. Sister Robertson is known for her dumplings and there's a competition between missionaries who can eat the most. The old record was 46. I ate 47. There's a new king in town folks! Had a rough night after eating that much. After dinner we had a lesson with our friend.

   Friday: We had lots of planning today. And then we had a teaching appointment with one of our friends. It went good. He has a dog who's a large puppy and wouldn't stop biting me. But it's ok because I'm his favorite. After that we had a lesson with a friend with President Johansson joining us. Sadly the lesson fell through. But we still had a great time talking with president. He's honestly a pretty funny guy. After that we had basketball night. We had some friends and members come and we played a full court game. It was a good time. 

   Saturday: The day started with a teaching with one of our friends. Bright and early. The lesson went good though. Then we went back to our flat and did our study and so forth. Then we went door knocking. While knocking we found someone who we were able to share a message with. He was interested because of recent events in his life. He said we could come back next week to share more of our message. We did lots more door knocking for the rest of the day. And we had some Facebook finding. Then we went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. It was pretty fire ngl. 

   Sunday: So we had church. I know, big surprise. After our meetings we planned for two lessons we had for the day. We went to our first one. It was with our friend who drove up and asked us if we could visit him. He invited a friend to the lesson also. It went really well. They had lots of questions and we had lots of answers. And our friend is coming to church with us next Sunday. Then we had our second lesson which also went good. After that we went and door knocked for a little and found someone who talked with us for a little. Then we had dinner and watched a session of general conference. Then we had our transfer call.

   Now the answer we've all been waiting for. Do I stay or go??? That's a good question. Maybe it could've been worded a little different. But hey I'd give it a B+ if I was an English teacher. But I'm not... well the answer to the question is I'm staying with the same comp plus another Elder. So we're going to be a trio. I'm excited for that. 

   I never know what format to do emails. Like just talk about key points or go day by day. Overall this week was pretty awesome! For personal study yesterday I read the book of Moroni and it highlights important blessings and commitments we make as members. In chapter ten it talks about if we want to know the answer to something then pray, be worthy to receive the answer, read the Book of Mormon, and listen. So just do that. We tell our friends who we teach to just ask if our message and the Book of Mormon is true. God will tell them straight up either it is or it's not. But to pray and you'll get the answer. God will never lie, and I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. 

   Well I love you all, and hope you have the most stellar week. Thanks for the love and support. Fun fact I hit four months this week. Talk to ya next week!

Service Pic

Weird Building

Vietnamese Restaurant

Possums Are Good at Faking Death

 Hello everyone! 

   This week was the most stellar for me!!! It was filled with miracles, exchanges and lots more. So, let's get to it!!! 

   To start off, miracles. So, this week we had the feeling to knock this certain street and were able to find loads of new friends. We had follow up appointments with some and they went amazing. Hashtag miracle number one. Miracle number two, we were knocking the same street and while at a door someone drove up and called to us and told us he lived there but was leaving and wanted to come back and tell us he wanted to visit with us. So, we left our number at the door and he's been texting us. Someone who's actually interested in meeting us. Hashtag miracle. 

   Next exchanges, so this week I was able to go on exchanges with the Zls. I went to the city with Elder Johnston. And let me say, what an amazing time. We walked to the church office which is on the 7th floor in an office complex. It's a super long walk and on the way we just did street contacting. We talked to some super cool people. And the whole time Elder Johnston would just ask me what way or who to talk to. I was like dude idk I've never been here. But he said go by the spirit so that's what we did. And we ended up in a park and I had such a strong feeling to talk to this guy on a bench. So we went over and he wasn't interested at all. But then I noticed there was thus other bench a couple feet away. So my thought was I just missed my shot by a bench. So we went and talked to the guys on the other bench. And man were they interested. They didn't want us to leave. They kept asking questions and loved the Book or Mormon we gave them. We got their number to set up a follow up appointment. So that was such a good experience. So later we were doing fb finding and someone called us out of the blue on it that we just added. So we answered (usually wouldn't) and ended up teaching him. He's super cool. And it was such a surprise haha. Then to end the day we had a teaching appointment with two of their friends. That lessons went amazing. The spirit was so strong. They received everything amazingly. And on that note, we ended our exchange.

   Now just random stuff that happened throughout the week. We had our ward talent show. That was super fun, we had some friends come and met some new ones there. It was also a blast of a time. Pday for today we went hiking to these waterfalls. We were wearing like shorts and stuff. It took a couple of hours and on top of that, it was pouring. Literally the whole time. And it was freezing. But we still had a blast, just drenched and will all have colds and die. Oh also on that hike we saw a tiny snake and ofc I tried to pick it up. (Not a good idea in Australia). It wasn't being very nice so we let it go. Then we hiked back. Got subway, showered, changed, and just chilled and played spikeball. 

   Then the rest of the week was filled with lessons, member visits, and other stuff haha. So yeah, that's my week. It was probably the best week of my mission so far. Knock on wood please. Well I love you all! Sorry I'm literally the worst at responding to emails. I might do better, I'll certainly try. Jkjk I'll do better. Thanks for all of your love and support! Talk to ya in a week and by then I'll know about transfers. I really want to stay! Ok love ya, bye.

-Elder Kapp

A possum that's really good at playing dead. Like really good. Like it's been a couple of days. He deserves a medal.

Hike

More Hike

View from hike

District council with the man himself