Elder Erik Kapp: Back to Carlsbad and Spiritual stuff....

So this week I am going to highlight a few key things that happened, then I want to talk about some more spiritual things. If you don't care much for that the pictures are located at the bottom of the page.

(Most of you have already opened this and scrolled down there already anyways)

- Stephanie Lippman is on date for 16 July 2017! She is in Utah right now visiting her boyfriend for 2 weeks, but will get baptized the following Sunday! I'm super excited because she's letting me do the baptism! That will be so awesome!

- We started teaching a man named Mike Molina. He has been taught for 7 years by missionaries. He loves the gospel. He loves the missionaries. He is just afraid to be baptized for some reason. We are meeting with him tomorrow!

- I got a call from E. Wilde this last week. There was a family, the Wongs, we worked with and got close to in my Twin Oaks Vally. They'd been less active for 10+ years, but were so spiritual and great people. They just didn't come to church! Shortly after I left they stopped letting the missionaries in. Well, Elder Wilde was told by a member of TOV that they are active now! They just showed up. Moral of the story... You can't give up on people. You just need to keep loving them and don't lose hope!

- We went on exchanges with the AP's on Friday. I got to go to Carlsbad YSA and worked with Elder Hadfield! For those who don't know, we served in Carlsbad YSA together 9 months ago. We visited our convert and it was just a dream come true!

For whatever reason I have felt like I should share my thoughts and feeling on hope and understanding our eternal identity. The world is in a state of unrest and confusion. It has been this way since the Great Apostasy following the death of the apostles. The world is full of millions of opinions about what is true, what is real, and what is right. This makes it hard to be confident in your beliefs because they are constantly questioned.
You need to realize what's most important. The gospel is broken down into basic fundamentals called principles. We know the first principles of the gospel are faith and repentance. Both faith and repentance are rooted in Jesus Christ. We must have faith in Him to repent. Prayer, reading the scriptures, going to church, and being baptized are all simple acts of faith. When we do these small things our faith grows. As it says in Ether 12:4 "...hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men...". If you want to have hope, you need to increase faith. If hope is our anchor, then faith is our chain that connects on us to our hope. If we don't have enough chain, our anchor will not ground us and we will find ourselves hopeless and lost. But if we exercise our faith daily and put links into our chain every day we can be "sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. (Ether 12:4)"

I understand that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not an easy church to be a part of. I know there are many enemies to the gospel. I know many people fall away whether it be from not agreeing with doctrines or policies, being offended, lack of fellowship, or doubting the truth of the Restoration and Book of Mormon through Joseph Smith. All of those things are important and essential. However, I just plead with all of you to remember the one most important thing...

You are a child of our Heavenly Father and He loves you. There is nothing you can do to change that. It doesn't matter how bad you've sinned, what you've been through, or how long it's been since you uttered His name in prayer. He is there waiting eagerly for you to hear from you again. There could be times you might think you are too far off the path. You might think you've tried enough already. You might think it's too late. You might think that you've reached your breaking point and you can't go on. But you could never be more wrong. You are His child and He wouldn't send you here to battle this dark world alone. Because He loves you so much He sent our older brother, Jesus Christ, to walk to path to where you are, where you have been, and where you will go, and all the way back to Him again so that you could make it home!

If anything please PLEASE never abandon your relationship with God. Life will be hard. It was meant to be hard so we could learn and grow. You can't lie to yourself and say "it's not for me" because it's part of your identity! YOU ARE HIS CHILD! Whether you know it or not now, it's true. If you have a strong understanding of your identity and your worth to Heavenly Father you will be able to withstand the opposition of the world. This gospel is true. Don't get too caught up in the opinions of the world. This church is all about Jesus Christ. So just focus on that. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Christ's church is on the earth again. I now this is true because the Book of Mormon is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true because I have felt the Holy Spirit testify to me it was true and when I live the truths found in the Book of Mormon I find more peace, clarity, and joy in my life. Jesus Christ is our Savior. You can be healed of your past. He will help you forgive others and yourself. You can withstand all that is put in front of you because Christ knows what it feels like. Trust God. Be humble.

Hopefully somebody needed to hear that! I love you!

Elder Kapp