Carlsbad YSA Week 14 - One Year

This last week has been one of the best weeks of my mission. It started as one of the hardest. I know that sometimes we have hard times just so we can be more humble. Sometimes we fall into ruts in life/ on missions and we feel like nothing is working. We start losing motivation and lose sight of what's really important. What I learned from the visit from Dallin H. Oaks this last week is that if we come to learn and love the Savior more everything else becomes easy. It makes sense.

I also learned that this is a gospel of love. The last couple months have been especially crazy because of the election. The areas I've been in have been a mixture of conservatives and liberals. Seeing the election as a missionary was sad. Sometimes it seemed like less than a debate and more of a war! There was so much hatred and attacking another person's beliefs and morals. On Saturday, Dallin H. Oaks talked about how we must love the people around us. People can believe what the want religiously, politically, etc... That doesn't change the way they should be treated. I realized as members of Christ's church we have an obligation to represent what we want people to think of Christ. (I mean, we did promise to take his name upon us when we were baptized.) This is something I need to work on. It's sometimes hard not to judge people. We see all kinds of crazy stuff and are rejected. Turning the other cheek is SO MUCH easier said than done. But I'm setting a goal to do it regardless.

This last week we taught Delshawn. He is excited to receive the priesthood and go to the temple! WE ARE SO FLIPPIN HAPPY FOR HIM!

On Thursday they turned off the power in our complex at night. That was a lot of fun and was super scary. Thank you to whoever sent glow sticks in my package. You saved the day!

Friday I hit my year mark. I am one year old as a missionary! That was a blast! We got to burn a shirt with Elder Gull that night. The next morning we had a mission conference and were visited by Dallin H. Oaks and some other authorities. It was super cool that it was Elder Oaks. He visited the MTC a year ago when I was there starting my mission and it was ironic he visited as I began the last year. That was an incredible experience.

At church on Sunday a guy named Steven Miller came. He has come 3 times now. He a marine and a roommate with a member. He is elect! We gave him a Book of Mormon last week and he already has a testimony that it is true. (That was easy). We haven't even taught him yet! We probably will start teaching him this week.

I want you all to know that I have testimony of the reality of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He was born... He lived... He suffered... He died... All for us. There is no greater gift that we could ask for. You are a child of our Heavenly Father and He knows exactly what you are going through and what you are struggling with right now. He loves you and wants you to be happy. He has given us prophets, the Bible and Book of Mormon, prayer, and the priesthood to help us come closer to him and be happy. I know this is true. He does care. I know this is Christ church on the earth. I am sad my experience of sharing the gospel is already half way over and I cannot wait for the opportunities I have in the year to come. I love each of you and say all this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder Erik Kapp