Big ol' Brown Snake

 Hello to all my family and friends! How have you all been? So fun fact about the title of this email, you all know Australia is known for it's deadly creatures and stuff? Well one of the worst is the Brown Snake. Guess what I almost stepped on this week?! They aren't too happy of creatures I can tell you that. We were walking to a lesson and I was looking at Google Maps for directions and next thing I know, my comp is stopping me from stepping on this huge deadly snake. So yeah, that happened. 

   Besides the snake, this week was actually super beast. If I've said it once, I've said it a million of times, I love this area so much! The first thing that made this week amazing was I got to door knock! I was so so happy. We had a lot of appointments fall through, so we were able to door knock heaps. And let me tell you, when one door closes, another one opens. We were able to find so many people this week door knocking. It was such a miracle. One of the people specifically was Tom. He was one who was like, "I'm busy come back Friday." Not a lot of hope there. BUT, we showed up Friday and he was so happy to see us. We talked for about an hour and he had some amazing questions about what we were teaching. So excited to see what comes from the visits. 

 The second amazing miracle was Robin. So a little back story, the sisters there said there was this older guy in their area who used to take lessons, but because of missionaries he rejoined his old church. What silly gooses. But they said they think I could connect with him and to give it a try. So we called and scheduled a time to see him and when we showed up... nothing. Oh what a bummer. We tried calling and nothing. But a few days later we get this call and it's Robin! He felt awful about what happened, he was reading the Book of Mormon the day of our lesson and fell asleep. So he made sure to see us that day. And let me say, he and I connected so well! He had questions that were really on his mind that I was able to answer. And he was so happy with the visit and asked us to come back next week. That was a huge miracle.

 Some side miracles, we had an amazing lesson with John, Margaret who is still doing amazing and has a day set to go to the temple. And then we had a couple more lessons with some of our other friends. This week was joyful for me. 

 Now the random stuff: First, we had service for a ward member this week. Doing lots of yard work and what not. There was this crazy guy on the bus who was telling us about how wrong religion is and his times in the crazy people care place. I almost burnt down our flat by accident. I was cooking fish on a pan in the oven, and it looked funny and when I opened the door, flames just shot out. The whole pan was on fire. So we threw it on the ground and smothered it with dish towels. Almost started the second round of burning down Australia. But on a positive food story, I made my mom's seven layer bean dip and ate it in the span of 24 hours. So I feel pretty good about that. Oh and last thing, while we were door knocking there was this guy who came out with very little on but asked to show us something. Usually I would say no, but hey, you only live once haha. No he just showed us some super cool cars that he's been working on. He didn't want Jesus so hopefully the cars will keep him happy enough.

 Ok ok enough babbling, spiritual stuff time. The little spiritual thought I have is something I heard in sacrament. So a senior couple from my ward just returned home and gave their talks and the guy talked a lot on missionary work and how everyone needs to serve. And what he said which stood out to me was this, "Make the decision now to serve, and the Lord will show you how." It's very much true that missions can be hard. But the reason they're possible is because of the Lord. We do our best, and the Lord will make up the rest.

 

  Well, I love you all and appreciate all you do for me. And hey, if you're bored, shoot me an email. No promises I'll respond, but I sure will try and I sure do love them. I hope you all have an amazing week and thank you so much for everything!

Snake

Cars

Me

Lizard

Tank and minion mailbox

My Butter From Another Utter

 How's it going my family and friends?!!! I hope it's all going good. Hope you enjoy the subject, its a special one haha. Has their been any crazy news or things happening back home? Guess what? I finally got to watch conference! WOOHOO! Oh man was it good. It's definitely different having to watch it throughout the week on my own instead of watching it live at home. But hey, if it works, it works. To start off my email I wanted to just tell you how good this week was. First things first, our friend Margaret got baptized!!! She is a very stubborn lady but luckily, I'm more stubborn. The service went amazing. To get a sense of the character Margaret is, I asked her after the service finished on how she felt. Her response, "I have a dry mouth, I swallowed too much chlorine. Looks like my inside is just as clean as my spirit." She's a literal crack up. All jokes aside though, it was such a great time and the spirit was so strong. And the ward was so amazing at helping her feel welcomed. Such an amazing experience. 

   Anywho, some other amazing stuff happened this week. We had such an amazing lesson with our friend John. He was super curious about baptism and how that works in our church. Right now we are fighting against the Jehovah Witnesses over him. But our church is true, so of course we'll come out on top. Haha they've actually been pretty nice about him seeing us as well as them. On top of that we also had such an amazing experience with this YSA name Kaba. We were walking to an appointment and I saw he had a NBA jersey on so I stopped in my tracks and went over and talked with him. We ended up talking for like 20 minutes. He was so keen to hear what we had to say. We left him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and scheduled a date to come back. But here's the sad part, when we went back he came out, read the Book of Mormon and absolutely loved it. And we started to teach him the restoration his dad came out. He is a very huge brother, and told us to get lost. And told his son to get inside. Even though Kaba is old enough to take lessons from us, his dad forbids it. So yeah, that's where we're at. But, like I said I am stubborn. So we are going to go back and have a heart to heart with the dad. But if the answer is still no, that's ok, because Kaba will be taught when the Lord sees fit. 

   On a happy note, we were able to contact a lot of people who were taught in the past, and got appointments with them. Also, we had a lesson with our friend who is a paid pastor for his church. He's been saying over and over for us to read Hebrews, so I did. And when he asked my thoughts, I simply told him it was basic Christian doctrine, and how it was nothing I didn't already know. Oh man, was that not the answer he was looking for. I think he thought it would convert us to his church but I flat out told him he is just a basic Christian. Then we talked more about beliefs and I said since we read what he wanted, now he has to read the Book of Mormon. He accepted and agreed to read the chapter we gave him. So we'll see how that goes. 

   Some extra stuff that happened, so if you followed my last emails of my last area, you would know that I always find the strange people and they always come to me. Well this last week we found this lady who was in desperate need of service, but then she started knocking her neighbor's doors saying we were there to do free service for the whole neighborhood. She had good intentions, it was all fine until she put her hand on my arm. That's when I dipped and now the sisters will be seeing her. 

   On that note, let's have a spiritual thought. And of course it's from general conference. So in the talk by Sister Freeman, she shared her story being on a tour in Israel. But while she was there she had a broken ankle. While going around, the tour guide tied a rope to her scooter and helped her on their journey. This is likened to our life on Earth. Jesus Christ is our tour guide, and we need to trust the rope that tethers us together. He will never let go, so we must put our faith and trust in him that he will get us through our journey and that the rope never snap.

   Well I am absolutely loving my area. It's been a blessing and such a good experience. I hope you all have an amazing week. And don't be strangers, I love your emails. Thank you for all the love and support! Love you all!

I love graffiti art

Look what I'm under

This store keeps chocolate in the fridge.
Greatest place on earth.

Margaret's Baptism

Little more of the baptism

Springtime

Hey! I added a subject on this one!!!

  Happy Australia Labor day everyone! Totally forgot to add a subject to my last email. Oops. Oh whale 🐋. This week was pretty epic. I'm seriously loving every second of this area. Even the depressed people who don't want joy, I even love them! Crazy right? Anywho this one is going to be a doozy. So to start off, Tuesday. We had an amazing lesson with Margaret, just working with her towards getting baptized. And then we went to a members house and gave him a blessing, so that was neat. Then we visited heaps of people and had dinner with the Duffields. *Spoiler Alert* This last week we had dinner appointments all but Saturday. #Blessed. Anywho so that was good. 

   Then Wednesday we had district council as usual, but at the bus stop we met this super sweet lady who gave us her number to meet with her. That was fun. Then we had a lesson with our good friend Stephan who's a paid pastor for his church. It's just like nice Bible bashes. But he just spits basic doctrine so I feel like I'm owning him. In a nice loving way of course. Anywho, then after that we door knocked and had dinner with my favorites, the Hanns. Ok now onto Thursday. So in the morning we went to seminary and helped with that. And got breakfast so that was a plus. But it was loads of fun. Definitely don't remember the doctrinal mastery scriptures haha. Then later we had a lesson with Margaret. She's still doing well and is getting ready for baptism. Then we saw some friends and an old member who was obsessed with his Korean show. We wouldn't watch it so he wad giving us play by play. Sweet old guy though. Then we met with some less activities and had dinner with some members. That was a blast. They have two younger boys who love to talk. 

   Onto the weekend, Friday, we had a good lesson with our good friend Robin. He was taught in the past but stopped coming to church because of past missionaries. So hopefully we can fix that haha. Silly gooses. But then we had another lesson with our friend John. He's doing good, just doesn't want to come to church. But we'll fix that. Then we door knocked and then to finish the night we...

   Had our Samoan Bible study! I love going to this. There was a lot more Samoans and reminder they belong to a different religion, but it still didn't stop me from whipping out my Book of Mormon. Then we had a feast of pizza, KFC (obviously), and heaps of other foods like hard boiled eggs, breads and then they gave me islander cereal. I was so nervous to try it. But I took a nice big spoon full with everyone watching and choked it down. It's water, rice, raw coco beans, and some cream. It tastes like coffee. We had to call our islander sisters after to make sure we didn't break the word of wisdom. But at dinner they wouldn't stop putting food on the plate. I felt so bloated after. But they're so loving and kind. 

   Ok ok on to Saturday, if you're still reading haha. Today literally no one was home and everyone was watching the Australia Football championship. So door knocking wasn't very good. Not too much to note for this day. But Sunday we had Margeret and a new member Ben come to church!!! We were so happy!!! Ben shared such a strong testimony. Oh I probably should mention, because we are ahead a day, our general conference isn't until next week). After church we had an amazing lesson with our friends Matt and Abby. And then saw more families we've been trying to see forever. And after had a great time door knocking, when I saw like 12 rabbits and was determined to catch one. When all of a sudden I hear this, "What are you so happy about?" My response: "I'm spreading the good news about Jesus Christ, why wouldn't I be happy." We ended up taking to this old guy for a while and he asked us to see us again. But he was lost and didn't know his address so time to start knocking that area to find him. After that we had dinner with Tony Bright and his family. This was the guy with all the birds. We had seafood and it was amazing. But after dinner we were late for our mission zoom call and my phone was dead, so we sprinted a literal mile back to the flat and made it. 

   This week was so amazing. Some side things, I petted a chicken and held a lizard. We found a pond in our area that had a lot of birds. We met a guy on the bus who played at Kansas college when Kobe played. He was super tall and had the biggest hands ever. I gave him a pamphlet so we'll see.

   Anywho sorry for the novel, my little spiritual thought is this thought that has come across my mind a lot: "How can I be an answer to someone else's prayers?" Like people say this to me and I'm like how? I'm a person and no one major, but that's the best part. We are everyday people who can make the biggest difference. Isn't that pretty neat? I thought so. There was also this quote I heard this week said from Ben at church, it was "In order to have sunshine, we must have the rain." So true. 

   Well I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Keep on killing it with whatever you do. Thanks again for all the support and love!

Nature

Sunday Dinner

Hey look it's me

Oooo A Lizard

Hello little roo

Guess Who???

   Guess who??? It's your favorite missionary! Unless I'm not then we have a big problem on our hands. But we'll save that for later haha. ALSO, a lot of people back home has had the impression that I am quiet or shy. Well let me tell you that there is not a single soul in Australia that thinks that. And for those of you who believe I am quiet, then consider yourself fact checked and know you are wrong. Anywho let's begin.

   I hope you all has an amazing week!!! I, myself, had a great week. I love this area so stinken much. Loads of good things happened this week. Probably our biggest highlight is with our friend Margeret. She accepted the invitation to be baptized! We're so excited for her. Some other great things that have happened was we had an amazing lesson with our friend Bryn. He really enjoys our visits and invitations. And then also we had a lesson with our friend John. And he's an older fellow who's always looking out for us. He also gets visits from the Jehovah Witnesses so we got some relationships to break. Just kidding of course😅. Anywho... we also had some great success seeing people who were taught in the past and getting lessons scheduled for this next week. Very very excited to see what comes from that.

   On a more goofing off note, I made a lemonade slushy this week with the lemons from our huge lemon tree in our back yard. We also tried the tiktok jelly fruit thinga. Those were actually amazing. Elder Santos and I are getting pretty dang good at our duos in volleyball. Sadly he finishes his mission in two transfers. Oh whale 🐋 that's life. On a different note, we didn't see any kangaroos this week😔... PSYCH, we saw heaps. I love this place. Welllll on another totally different note, we had transfer calls, but of course I'm staying. Looks like I'll be stuck in an area for another 8 months🙄. Haha just kidding, I'm super happy I get to stay. I absolutely love this area.

   The little spiritual thought I have is we shouldn't be enduring to the end, but enjoying to the end. Make life fun and enjoyable. 

   Well I hope you all have a most stellar week. I sure do love you all and love your emails. Keep 'em coming. Thanks for everything!

   -Elder Kapp

We busen

The district

Love the sunsets

Cinnamon,Cinnamon,don't forget the Cinnamon

Can't forget the roos

Samoan Bible Study

  The most happiest Monday to you all! I hope you all had the very best week ever. My week was so amazing. To start the week we had exchanges. And I stayed in TTG with the last Elder who served here (Elder Campbell). So we went to work and got a lot done. It was a great exchange. And then we have Wednesday, the main event. We had a lesson with the sisters and their friend who they were teaching who had a lot of deep doctrine and flat out wild questions. So he and I talked for two hours while everyone else watched and listened haha. But we cleared everything up and they ended up giving him to us to teach. His name is Bryn, and he's pretty cool. 

   We also had zone conference this week which was amazing. It was a about the spirit. This week we also had a couple lessons with our friend Margeret which went very good. She came to church on Sunday and loved it. We also had a couple other great lessons with some of our other friends. Sadly we only had like one day in where we could door knock. But just too busy. Then on Friday night we had one of the coolest experiences on my mission so far. We got invited by our neighbor who is Samoan to come over to his place for a Bible study with others from their religion. So we invited someone from our church and us three went over to a house full of Samoans. The Bible study was such an amazing experience. They were all very welcoming and asked for our comments. And then as prompted by the spirit, I did something outrageous. I pulled out my handy dandy Book of Mormon and read from it. A room full of big ol' Samoans staring me down, BUT they loved it! We talked about it and it was so great. And afterwards we had a big feast of KFC and Pizza and whatever else they could get their hands on. We're invited again next week which I'm so stoked about. They were so loving and kind towards us. It was such an amazing experience.

   My spiritual thought this week is from Come Follow Me. 2 Corinthians 1:4, "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." I love this scripture so much and I've definitely seen it in action while being out on my mission. 

   This week was one of my favorites on my mission by far. Yes I'm probably missing a lot in this email about things that happened. But it was so great. Sorry for any spelling errors or if things don't make sense, I'm writing this on a busy, bouncy, bus. Dang that sounds like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book haha. Well I hope you all have an amazing week filled with great memories. Thanks for all the love and support as always. I love you all, talk to you next week.

Exchanges

Teaching with Dave

Oops! Wrong Church

Zone Conference

Biking, Drunks, and more

   Happy 1 month in Tea Tree Gully. Let me tell you, this month has absolutely flown by. And I've been loving every minute of this area. Especially this last week because it has some pretty crazy stuff. First exciting news, I biked! For those who don't know, I needed a new tube but they wouldn't give me one because of my collarbone. BUT, I had enough. So you know what I did? Got our big ol pump, pumped up the tire. Went out to an appointment that was hecka far away in the hills on the worst weather day of the week with pouring rain and wind. And took my pump in one hand the whole way. Had to pump up the tube like 8 times, but we did it. Woohoo!!!

   Interesting thing number 2: the drunk. So I've come across drunk people left and right here. Drinking is like a religion in Australia. So we're at the bus exchange to catch a bus, it's around 4:00, a couple hundred people. And then out of the hundred I was chosen out by this drunk native lady. She was the definition of tipsy. She was all over the place and came up right to me just yelling for everyone to see. Lasted like 10 minutes of me just standing there not even moving until our bus finally came. I just told her she needed help and to drink lots of water haha. 

   On a more spiritual note we had some amazing lessons this week. Two with Margeret and some with some other of our friends. It's such a spiritual high when you are able to come out of a lesson with someone progressing. One of the greatest joys. We also did some service for a couple of ward members. Just some gardening, moving and installing a water tank, and moving gravel. Fun fun stuff. 

   Now the little stuff that made me happy. We joined the Stake choir for Stake conference. Had practice which was pretty fun. I also caught two lizards this week. And saw a koala and some kangaroos. We also went to a park with a whiteboard and had people write what/who they love. Super cool and fun experience. And lastly, door knocking this week was one of my favorites of my mission. We just were able to talk to so many people and it just made me happy.

   Now for my little spiritual message. We read this in church and I absolutely loved it, "I will never forget you,” with these words: “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Dang isn't that amazing. It's just such an amazing thought to think that Jesus Christ will never ever forget us. But how often do we forget him? Yes we don't have scars from nails on our hands, but how could we forget someone so amazing and loving? He literally died for each of us. So crazy to think someone loves us enough to go through all of that. Very comforting if you asked me.🤓

   Well another week has come and gone. Couldn't do it without all of you. All the love and support I have is out of this world. Thank you for all that each of you has done for me. I love you all and miss you heaps. Have an amazing week. And keep in touch, I love hearing from you all.

-Elder Kapp

 Y.O.L.O.

Biking

Some Roo

Random Folks

I saw the sign (after)

Australia

20 Laps Around the Sun

    I'm finally not a teenager!!! Dang that's weird. Definitely doesn't feel like it haha. Anywho, this week was pretty decent. We got to do family history with Elder and Sister Sant. That was loads of fun. Then we were able to have two lessons with our friend Margeret. She's been progressing great, the only problem is she's scared of change. We've taught her everything now, we just need her to love the church. We also had a great lesson with our friend John which was great. He's open to meeting with us but he really likes to talk so these visits go a long time. Other than that our teaching pool is shrinking quick. Everyone's dropping left and right. 

   On a brighter note we were also able to do service this week for a couple of members in our ward. One was for the Duffields and it was just weeding, and same for a less active member. And then for another member their garage ceiling collapsed so we helped them fix that and put a new one up. Oh and they have a son who's like 24 and we got to hear about and help him with his girl drama. I'm telling you, I'm literally the love doctor haha. Jokes. 

   Then with that we just had laughs here and there which really helped the week. Oh also, our bus driver forgot to stop at the bus exchange so it got on these like rail road tracks for buses going 90kilometers and we ended up in Morialta. Oops. Had to hurry get on a bus and get back to our area. And then yesterday, we went to visit someone we're teaching and it was just a 45 min bible bash. BUT, I won😏...I'm still loving my area loads, just working on loving the people in my area a little more;).

   A little spiritual thought I have is on the greatest spiritual gift, which is charity. Charity means something different to each person, but no matter what, if we don't have charity then we can not have true joy. Joy comes from love if we like it or not. So just love, and we can be happy:).

   Well I love you all! Thanks for an amazing 20 years and for all the birthday wishes. I'll talk to y'all next week, have a great week!

Family History

Morialta

Just a reminder that I'm in Australia

Elder Santos

Birthday