The Outback

 Ok seriously, this week, was the literal best ever! We were able to do exchanges with the Whyalla Elders. With the exchange we went to their outlining areas to get the work moving there. The first was Ceduna, and then we went to Port Lincoln. There was countless miracles and I've never been in a place so prepared for the Gospel. I'd like to apologize in advance that this email might be long. But let's get to it!

So Tuesday was just driving to Whyalla. On the way we got crocodile burgers which was not bad. Then we drove for the remainder of the day. Day 2: We started our exchanges, I was with Elder Larsen for Ceduna. We drove up and on the way stopped at some members and gave them the sacrament. Such a cool experience because they live in the middle of nowhere so they don't get the sacrament too often. But after a lot of driving we made it. We got to our Motel and went out and visited a friend named Josephine. We talked for a little and scheduled a time to go back the next day. After that lesson we met this guy named Zac walking. He was super chill and just started following Christianity. We were able to answer his questions and share a message. By this time it was late, so we went to this pizza place and got this humongous pizza. Took it back to the rooms to find out how spicy it was. Holy dang was it hot. After some tears from the food, we hit the hay because it was very late and we were very tired. 

Day 3: Woke up and got the breakfast the place provided. Which was just cereal and toast, but better than nothing. We then went a saw a member and gave her the sacrament which was great. Then we went to this indigenous art gallery because one of the workers is someone they're teaching. Let me tell you, it was the most amazing art ever. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures. But, we had such an amazing lesson with Yana. I also bought one of her paintings which was super cool. After that we went to the beach because there were heaps of groups of indigenous people. So we just started teaching. Elder Larsen and I went from group to group teaching. It was such an amazing experience. We did see a fight or two and some people get arrested, but hey, all part of the work. But no joke, these couple of hours we had on the beach was probably a top highlight for my mission. It was such a good experience. So after a couple of hours of teaching we went and met up with the other Elders and had a lesson with some of their friends. The lesson went so amazing. After that we went to this Aboriginal land and had a lesson with Mr. Smith. It went pretty good, so cool to be in the Outback. After Mr. Smith we went back to see Josephine and her family. We had an amazing lesson with them. And they asked us if they could be baptized! Like what, that's our job haha. Obviously we said yes and scheduled that. Then we had to scurry to the motel and hop on a zoom for our meeting. Overall, today was so great!

Friday: We started our second exchange. Elder Keller and I were together for Port Lincoln. I got to drive this one. We drove for 4 and half hours. On the way we stopped at a members house who literally lives in a house made of wood pallets out bush. Sickest thing ever. Then we stopped at some indigenous friends and had a lesson with them. Then finally we got into Port Lincoln around 8pm. Holy crap this place is beautiful. A very much like Hawaii and Seattle had a kid, that's Port Lincoln. We got food with the other Elders and moved all our stuff into our room. 

Day 5: We planned with the other Elders who was going where and what was happening. Then we went out. Elder Keller and I went to visit an indigenous friend but some guy came out and was not happy. So instead we felt like we should door knock. We talked to this hammered guy (literally noon) but it actually went ok all things considered. But we then felt so strong to knock this one house and Suzanna came out. She is someone who really needed a visit. We talked to her for about an hour just on her front porch. She's super keen to take the lessons and grow spiritually. Definitely a miracle. After that we met up with the other Elders to visit a member who turns out wasn't home. So we went to visit other people taught in the past. Then we had a lesson with Sheila and Tim. Sheila has a leg infection but she wants to be baptized more than anything. Just gotta wait for the leg to be better. But the lesson went so smoothly. They had such good questions and agreed and accepted all we had to say. It was so good. After that lesson we went and saw the Smith's. The wife and her sister are members, but not the husband. I talked to Brother Smith a lot and for the first time he stayed for the message. Of course we had it set to teach him and it went very good. After that we had dinner with them and for the first time, I tried watermelon with salt. I always hear about it so we all tried it together. And let me tell you, dang it was good. The flavor was so strong. And get this, for dessert we had ice cream, but with black beans! Apparently that's a thing. It tastes like you'd imagine. After dinner we went and saw Brother and Sister Bartsch. They really needed the visit because they are as sick as can be. It was good for us to help them. 

Last day of the trip: We finished our exchanges and went off to church. It's a small group who rents out this senior citizen club. There were 9 members this week which was very good. We had sacrament and Elder Arnold and I got asked to teach Come Follow Me. Then after we had lunch. This was probably my favorite church experience in my entire life. It was so good. We had to take off sadly because we had a 7 hour drive back to Paralowie. After an hour or so Elder Arnold had to switch because he was so tired. So I drove the way home. Fun fact, the longest I've driven before this was probably 45 minutes. It was a good drive but let me tell you, I'm exhausted from the week.

This week was so good and again I'm sorry about how long the email is. But it was such a good week and I'm terrible at journaling so this will help me remember. 

A spiritual thought comes from a talk I read this week. The quote is, "Hard makes us stronger, humbles us, and gives us a chance to prove ourselves." We need hard things in life to grow and improve. It would be kind of boring if we stayed the same and never grew. So in short, hard is good. Easier said than done haha.

As always, I love you all and appreciate everything. If you're bored, then you know my email;). Talk to y'all next week.

Ceduna

The View

The Elders

Lessons...

Put a Hole in the Wall

 You know when you have a dream of like catching something and then you wake up to your arm moving. Yeah well I had a dream like that, and it resulted to me kicking a hole in the wall. But wait, that's just the start of the story. So I just went back go sleep because oh well can't fix it at 2 a.m. But when we looked at it in the morning, there were termites all inside. So we had a pest control guy come and it looks like they are everywhere. So we'll probably be moving because they'll probably just have to knock this house down. So in conclusion, I don't feel bad whatsoever about what I did to the wall.

   Also this week, we had a meeting literally every single day. We spent hours having to fill out all this forms and sheets and what not. I literally was going insane. But we eventually got through it. And it's all worth it because this next week we'll be going out to a place called Ceduna with some other Elders. We'll leave Tuesday and get back Sunday. Super excited for it and for the work this week. It'll be good. 

   But this last week, it was beast. The most beast day was probably Valentine's Day. This day we were crazy busy. We got a lesson about ten minutes early so we decided to door knock. And first door, he opened and let us in. His name is Sokol (probably spelled it wrong). We actually talked for a while and were late to our next lesson, but totally worth it. He's super keen on coming to church once we get back next week. Then after Sokol, we had a lesson with a family we've been teaching. We were able to get a member who we've been working with on returning to church. The lesson went so amazing. Then we took that member and saw more of our friends we're teaching and door knocked with him for like 20 minutes. Then all three of us walked to another one of our friend's house, got him and walked to our members Ryan and Karen's house. And there we had a barbecue and were able to have a lesson. It was so good. 

   We had another lesson with our friend Gaynor who is progressing very well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and has been loving it. We also saw a lot of less active families and a lot of them expressed interest in coming to church. So we're so excited for that because our ward should be a branch. It's tiny. 

   This week was just packed busy so I was very happy with that. I love working and helping people progress. It's what brings me the greatest joy. 

   Some random things this last week, I found the closest restaurant to Chipotle. So we went twice. Had exchanges with Elder Oliphant and that was so beast. I clamped our waffle iron on my finger, so yeah that's all that's new in life right now. 

   A thought I have is actually something President Johansson said in a meeting: We came to Earth to see less and believe more; because before we came we saw everything and believe less. I absolutely love this. We are here to exercise and grow our faith. We chose to go through the veil and forget our pre-earth life. We were given the veil to set us free. Free to choose whatever we'd like. Our future is up to us, and how we live it. This is all because our Father in Heaven loves us.

  I hope y'all know how great you are. I appreciate all of you. Love ya, talk to you all next week.

Barbecue

Exchange

Meetings

Sokol

Just Some Funny Business

First Time Driving in 14 Months

  Hey Everyone! You know, I say this a lot, but this week was definitely one of my favorites. I'm going to try to not make this email too long, but I'm not perfect. So we'll see what happens.

   First things first, the biggest miracle was William. We've been door knocking this apartment complex this last week. It's massive and we've been finding heaps of people there. Well we were knocking and went to this door and before we could knock, someone inside yelled for us to leave and to just knock the next door. So we did as they asked and left, we knocked the next door and they weren't super keen. While walking back to the stairs the guy who told us to go away yelled out if we wanted to come in. Umm yes. So we went in, and right away he offered us water and sat down. We talked for an hour with him. Answering every question he had, and he let us teach. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked if we could come by every week to teach him the lessons. His answer: "Yes! It will be amazing." His name is William, I'll add the picture with him at the end. But seriously, it shows how fast the spirit can soften someone's heart. 

   Next big miracle, last week I talked about and had a photo with a Filipino family we had a lesson with Sunday. Well yesterday we had another lesson and had some Filipino members join and it was amazing! We taught the restoration and the spirit was bringing everyone to tears. Then after we left because we had a meeting, the members stayed for like 30 more minutes just talking with them. It was such a miracle. 

   Another super awesome thing was our exchanges this week. I got to be with Elder Shum in Paralowie! Honestly thought I was going to die driving. But hey, here we are. So something interesting, we door knocked that apartment place I talked about earlier and this lady opened and came out with this huge knife strapped to her. She didn't speak English so it was hard to tell if she wanted to stab us or get baptized. Who knows? Haha, on a real note the exchange was good. 

   One last miracle was one day we were door knocking in the evening before a meeting and decided to knock one last door. And guess what? They let us in. We taught their family, who were the literal nicest people ever. It was so good and such on God's timing.

   Some extra things that happened. We had to clean a flat with the other Elders because they had an inspection and no missionaries live there. That took forever. Something that made our literal day was driving to lunch after an ok morning, and getting the most wonderful call from some sisters saying they couldn't start their lawn mower (they claim they did everything possible). So we went over started the mower in literally 5 seconds, strung up the whipper-snipper, and left haha. It's what we needed to lighten up our day. We love our sister missionaries. 

   A little spiritual thought is this question: What would you do for our Savior? Seems pretty simple right? But think, even the Savior's closest friends fell asleep while he went through the most pain imaginable. Then one who loved the Savior so dearly, denied him three times. This was after they saw all these amazing miracles. I feel like sometimes we say like yeah I follow Jesus Christ, or I believe him. But us as humans don't show it as much as we should. You know they always say actions speaks louder than words. It's important to show people we love the Savior, rather than just saying it.

   Well another week done. I hit 14 Months tomorrow, which literally blows my mind. It's going to be sad saying goodbye to all these missionaries I've gotten close to. Anywho, love you all, let me know if there's anything I can do for you.

-Elder Kapp

My main man Chris

My guy, William

Exchanges

Our Favorite Sisters

Two Emails, One Week

 So I guess my email last week didn't send, so I sent it this morning and now you get this one. This week was honestly one of the best ones in a very long time. First things first, I'm serving in Paralowie. Last transfer I guess was rough for the area because of confusion between missionaries. But we're here to change that and it has already starting taking off. So Tuesday we had transfers and mail run for the zone. Then we had service for our friend Jason. We basically made a fence out of wood pallets. It low-key turned out pretty good. I got so burnt though. After that we had service for the Robsons who are members in our ward. We had to take apart their chicken coop, move it to their backyard, and put it back together. They're such a cool couple. They have this massive dog that apparently will bite you if brother Robson isn't around. But the dog is the nicest when he is. So we'll make sure to stay around brother Robson. Then they fed us Chicken Feet which were so amazing!

Wednesday we had our district council meeting and our district is huge! There's 11 missionaries in it. So that's crazy. After that we had a lesson with an inactive member and read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with him. It went super well. After that we then had a lesson with our friend Xay. He likes getting his information online so we'll see how that goes. Then we door knocked because we have such a small teaching pool. And then in the evening we had a lesson with two of our new members, Ryan and Karen. Who are doing amazing! That night after the lesson, we started exchanges with the Paralowie Elders, I went to their area with Elder Burgess and Elder Hansen and Elder Oliphant came to our area. 

Exchanges went really good. We had a lesson with one of their friends and were able to visit some people taught in the past and some less active members. And we door knocked so I was happy with that. They are super good missionaries and I'm excited to see what they do this transfer.

Friday we were able to visit a lot of people who were taught in the past but haven't had a return appointment. That went super well and we got heaps of lessons scheduled for this next week. We were able to door knock and met some awesome people from that. And then had a lesson with one of our friends so that was amazing. After heaps of door knocking we went to a less active members house for dinner. Their name is the Hapuku's. The mom is starting to come back to church and came this week! She's loving church and the joy it brings. Then we were able to talk to her son and he said he'll come this next week. So excited for their family.

Saturday morning we had a service for Sister Blackmore putting together this flower bed things. It was seriously the most complex garden thing ever. Why it needs so many parts, I do not know. We then went to visit some members and friends being taught. Then we door knocked and met this super cool lady who asked us if we could share more of our message with her. I'm super excited to see what comes from it. After door knocking all the Paralowie missionaries went to our ward mission leader's house to go over the ward's mission plan and their vision. The ward is barely a ward and almost a branch. But they are so determined, so I'm super excited to serve and help the members. After our very long meeting, we had to start our weekly planning.

Sunday I finally got to meet all the members. They are a super nice. Right before church someone asked Elder Arnold and myself to teach the Come Follow Me lesson. It went super well, the ward is literally so amazing. After meetings we went to see this family taught in the past and they let us in and we had an amazing lesson. They're having us over for a BBQ next week so I'm so excited for that.

The spiritual thought I had comes from a talk I listened to this last week. The quote is "Today is my day, I'm making it happen today." It's important to make the most of every day and go in with a positive mindset. 

I love you all and thank you as always for all you do. Have an amazing week! And email me or you're lame.

Sister Blackmore

Sunday lesson

Hapukus'

We in a car

Robson's

Congratulations to Elder Kapp

 Dear Family of Elder Kapp,

 

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that your missionary, Elder Caden Kapp has been called to serve as a Zone Leader in the Moroni Zone of the Australia Adelaide Mission.

 

Elder Kapp is an outstanding missionary who works hard and who blesses the lives of those he teaches. This change in roles represents a significant accomplishment on his part, and I am sure that you are as proud of him as I am.  He will be looked up to and will set a great example for the missionaries that he has stewardship over. 

 

We are most grateful to you for the support you give to your son and for his strong testimony of the gospel and of missionary work. Please join me in congratulating Elder Kapp.  We love him and are blessed by his service in this mission.

 

With love and appreciation,

President Adolf J. Johansson

Australia Adelaide Mission

 

 

Adios TTG

 Hi everyone! So let's just rip the bandaid off. Last night we had transfer calls and well if you couldn't have guessed from the title of the email, I'm leaving Tea Tree Gully. I'm legit pretty sad to leave but excited for what is coming my way. The new area I'll be in is Paralowie as a zone leader, so I'm pretty excited for this next adventure. 

Overall this week was pretty good. To start the week we had exchanges with the Elders in the district. Elder Easdale came to Tea Tree Gully with me. It was 107⁰, so dang it was hot. We went to see members and some less actives which was super beast. And went finding because we had lessons fall through. Then on Thursday it was raining so hard. And we didn't think it would so we were very unprepared. We went to lessons, finding and all that jazz. Then while walking we saw a family having car problems so we helped them change their tire, again it was raining. But worth it. 

While door knocking this week we met up with this guy named Brandon twice. He is reading everything we ask him to and is pretty keen. We're super stoked for that. Then we had lessons with three of our indigenous households. All went pretty beast. We had other lessons with our friends Matt and Abi, John, Tina, and so forth. It was a busy week but a great week to end the transfer. 

I'm honestly have such mixed feelings about this. This area has so much happening that I absolutely loved being a part of. I love the ward, everyone we're teaching and literally every person we meet. But I just need to put that trust in the Lord and love this new area. I am very excited about it. So we'll see what comes my way.

This last week I was rereading President Nelson's conference talks and while reading the talk, "Come, Follow Me," a phrase about families stood out to me. The phrase is, "So, what is required for a family to be exalted forever? We qualify for that privilege by making covenants with God, keeping those covenants, and receiving essential ordinances." He says in the talk that salvation is an individual matter, but exaltation is a family matter. If we want to receive the blessings the Lord has in store then we must keep our promises that we have made. It's only fair that if we want our Heavenly Father to do his end, then we must do ours.

Well y'all better know that I love you all. I'm stoked for this next chapter of the mission. If you want to, then send an email my way. But thanks for all you all do. Have a great week! Catch ya later TTG.

Bussing

Brother and Sister Neave

Covid here I come

Door Knocking

Changing Car Tire

Meetings After Meetings

 Annnnd it's Monday again. Let me tell you all, this last week was just meetings, meetings, and more meetings. So this last week we had a mission tour. So it was a three day conference with Elder and Sister Jaggi from the Area 70. So each day two zones would meet in person with him while the other four met over zoom. And each day they would have additional meetings for various assignments so I had meetings until 4:00 every day. So yeah not very exciting. I honestly have mixed emotions about weeks like this. Like it's awesome to learn and grow spiritually from what we learn. But man do I hate the time away from the work. It was an up and down week. But we still had miracles! 

   Ok so Tuesday we almost weren't able to make it to the mission tour. The Saturday prior we had service with a member and his family for about 2 hours. Well Tuesday we had our district council and part way through we get a call from our Bishop. He was informing us that all the members of the family tested positive for Covid. Luckily the church had Covid tests so we did a couple tests that all came back negative thank goodness. But we continued to test every night and morning to make sure we wouldn't get anyone sick. So that was our first miracle. 

   The big miracle of the week was we went to visit our indigenous friends, but they weren't home. BUT, others were. So we talked to the people there and some wanted to come to church, and when they said church this man in the back said "church!" And hurried and started getting ready, and we were like no no, it's tomorrow. But he didn't quite understand until he came to the door to leave and we explained how it wasn't that day. Fast forward to Sunday morning, we show up to their house, and who was the only one ready? AniFrank. The man from the day before. He's an older fellow and church wasn't close, and buses are horrible on the weekend. So we walked an hour to a bus stop and bussed the rest. But we made it! And he said he really enjoyed his time. We were so happy he was able to come and enjoyed it, it was such a miracle for us. 

   Other random stuff and lessons that happened this week was I spoke in church Sunday. It actually went very well. A dog ate one of my teaching copies of the Book of Mormon. Not super bummed about it, at least it wasn't my personal or else that dog would be in Heaven. 

   Our Zone Conference in person with Elder and Sister Jaggi was pretty lit. I was able to talk to him and his wife for a while because their daughter served with Madi (my sister). And then during lunch I sat next to Sister Johannson and man is she a crack up. I'm literally so sad they leave in a couple of months. 

   One thing I loved from the mission tour which is also my spiritual thought is to have our own Sacred Grove moments. What Elder Jaggi explained by this is to set time aside of our schedule every day to just talk with our Father in Heaven, and study his scriptures. It's so easy for us to get caught up in the world, so like Joseph Smith, we at times need to step away from it and turn our focus and hearts to the Lord. Doing this we'll be able to see and understand what he needs from us, but also what he can and has done for us. 

   I just absolutely love that idea and thought to share it. Well this week is the last week of the transfer. And I am all over the place on what I'm hoping for. I love Tea Tree Gully so much, but change is also good. We'll see what the Lord wants. 

   As always. I love you all and love the support I get. If you need anything please reach out because I absolutely love serving and helping others. Y'all have a stellar week! Love ya!

Elder and Sister Jaggi

President and Sister Johannson

Walking to church with the man himself

The Elders

Hot Days