I don't know how to title this week, but it was a good one!

Hey everyone!

Let me start with talking about the interesting and fun things we did this last week. 

WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE ON WEDNESDAY! The San Diego Temple is the most beautiful building I have ever been in. WOW! It was an amazing experience. 

We went to Clyde Miller's 100th birthday party on Saturday! He is this member in our ward and he is just amazing. He still, today, makes cutting boards and stools for his friends. He is cool.

Later Saturday night, we 'responded to a prompting'.  In other words, we dodged a sketchy situation. We were walking down Knob Hill, a road right by our apartment. There is an elementary right there and we were getting a little bit closer to it when I noticed some cars and heard some shouting. I had a feeling and said, "Cross the road, now." We crossed so that we were on the other side of the road of the school. We walked a bit further and heard more yelling. I then said, "Elder Wilde, turn around! We need to get out of here." So we did and went down another road. Elder Wilde said he got a feeling right when I said that. Heavenly Father protects His missionaries. Moral of the story, ALWAYS obey promptings. If you are keeping the commandments and being good, you don't need to worry if it is your own thought of the spirit. It's the spirit and don't test it.

Most of my emails up to this point of my mission have been saying how, "We aren't finding things to do, but we are working hard." We have had no real investigators. We've had no progressing. No solid referrals. 

Let me just say, fasting and praying works. This last week has been full of miracles.

We didn't get to teach Janita and Alex because Janita has been really sick, BUT Alex came to church on Sunday and we are teaching them Tuesday and maybe Thursday.

Ron is in his 70's. He's a former investigator, but we have taught him a few times by just showing up to his house. He came to church on Sunday! We are inviting him to FHE at the Lawson's tonight.

Benny, the less active we've been working with, got a job, is working a ton, and came to church on Sunday!

On Friday, we were being dropped off at the church after dinner with the Johnsons. As we pulled in, Brother McMaster came out and started talking to Brother Johnson. Then he looked at us and said, "Elders. I got a bone to pick with you guys." We were like, oh crap.... He says...

"Our daughter, Jaycee, has this friend named Frankie. He has come to church a few times. He wasn't raised in any church, but I've talked to him a bit. We have a lesson set up with him at 7:00 on Sunday. Will you be able to come?"

........... Just like that....... So, we taught Frankie last night. He is 18 and lives outside our ward, but we got our President's permission because he would best be taught here. The lesson went so great! He was involved, asked lots of questions, and understood everything and accepted commitments. After the lesson he asked, "When can we meet again? I can do Thursdays and Sundays, if that works for you..."

So, we now have 3 investigators. We are SOOO grateful. And I have been a lot happier. We are finally finding the success we have been waiting for!! This should be a great week.

One thing I was reminded of this last week is our Heavenly Father is always aware of us. He loves us. We are His sons and daughters. Sometimes we feel alone and discouraged. Sometimes it seems like that connection between us and our Father is broken. No matter what you are going through or what you do, He is there! He is never ashamed of us. He wants to help us and is waiting to bless us. When life gets too hard to stand, kneel. He will be there to lift you up. 

I love you all so much! I am so grateful for this gospel. Be good. Talk to you next week!

Elder Kapp

                             A family from Minnesota visiting Southern California for
                                Spring Break took these pictures and sent them to us.

                                                           San Diego Temple

                                              Us standing in front of the temple.

                                          Threw a pass along card in the ceiling... Whoops.

Eighteen Then One

Hello everyone,

Life goes on in Twin Oaks Valley. And we have seen blessings.

So the title... "Eighteen then one". As you might know, we haven't been teaching a ton of lessons. We find several potentials every week, but they fall through. In fact, Elder Wilde counted and we had 18 lessons with potential investigators fall through IN A ROW. In 3 weeks, we had 18 lessons fall through with potentials and NO lessons. Zero. 

Because of this, I didn't have a lot of faith going into this transfer. To be honest, I was pretty disappointed I wasn't transferred. I love the ward, but the lack of success has really worn me out.

But Heavenly Father kept me here for a reason. So on Tuesday, we headed to a potential lesson with Alex and his girlfriend. On the way, our fellowshipper said he couldn't come and I scrambled to find someone else to come to this lesson with us. I lowered my head to say a prayer and before I even began to pray the name of Brother Birch popped into my head. I thought, "Wow. That was fast." We called him up and he picked us up.

We knocked on the door and Alex invited us in. We met his girlfriend, Janita. They are both from Uganda and are looking for the right church for them.

Let me back up real quick and explain how we met Alex. We found some former investigators in our area book and went to knock on the door. Alex came to the door and confirmed he wasn't who we were looking for. I began to explain who we were and asked if we could come share a message with him. He said we could come back Friday, but a voice from behind him said, "No, I won't be there! Do Thursday!" That appointment cancelled, rescheduled for Sunday, cancelled, and rescheduled for Tuesday. 

I want all of you to know that Heavenly Father is aware of you. He wants to bless you. Also, He answers your prayers. He always does. We just need to be patient for His answer.

As we began to teach Alex and Janita, we found out ALEX IS A MEMBER! He has been inactive for a long time and Janita didn't even know. We taught Janita the restoration. The Spirit was so sweet. We gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she would read it. I then asked her to hand it to me so I could bookmark a page and, to my surprise, she had already folded down the page for first Nephi. She said she would read and pray to know if it is true. We are teaching them again tomorrow.

Now ask yourself. Is it by chance that a man who has been an inactive member for over 7 years and his nonmember girlfriend have 2 young missionaries knock on their apartment door looking for someone who had once investigated the church in the same apartment? Heavenly Father knew. He is constantly setting appointments for us. We just need to be willing and ready to teach.

I am so humbled by the lesson I have been able to learn this week. Every 'no' we receive is one step closer to the 'yes' we are waiting for. Sometimes they come faster than 18. Sometimes longer. I know that as we keep working, exercising faith, keep the commandments, and be the best missionaries we can be, we will find those Heavenly Father is preparing AND begin to prepare those who will be taught and ready for those that will follow us.

Other than that lesson, it was a very slow week. Elder Wilde and I are the only companionship in the zone that was together last transfer. Everyone else is with a new companion. I guess we have an advantage there. We are excited for this next transfer and can't wait to see great things happen.

I love you all and I know that as we have faith in Jesus Christ and use His atonement in our lives, we will find joy. This gospel is the most important thing we could ever have. Without it we have nothing. Yes, there are jobs, schooling, work at home, family, and all other things that occupy our schedules. Don't ever let your schedule be too busy for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I mean, Jesus made time to suffer for you. 

Love you and I hope to have more to talk about next week! Have a great week!

Elder Kapp

 A lady in Erik's stake sent these pictures: "Just happened into the Family History Library while your sons and daughters were writing - greatest missionaries! Escondido loves them!"

"There's a turtle in the road..." - TRANSFERS

ELDER KAPP.......... IS GOING...... TO.................

be staying in Twin Oaks Valley for 6 more weeks with Elder Wilde. 

However, Elder Richards, our zone leader, is getting transferred to Oceanside. Elder Richards has been like an older brother to me and he is my favorite Canadian. Best of luck to him.

This last week was really slow. However, a few fun things happened.

On Friday we fasted. We haven't picked up any new investigators and the work has been crazy slow. So we fasted to find some new people. We found 2 new potentials. Elizabeth was getting her mail with her son and we set up a lesson to teach her Saturday, but she wasn't there. (AHHHHH!) We met Alex while going to a former investigator's house we found in the area book. We knocked on the door and Alex answered. I guess the former moved. So we took advantage of the situation and asked if he would be willing to hear our message. He said yes! He wanted to reschedule for a Saturday, but a girl's voice from the other room says, "Hey! I won't be there! Do Sunday!" But, he cancelled.... So we should teach him Tuesday.

Friday we had dinner with the Brittains. Brad Brittain was a lineman for Arizona State University and is a big guy. He has been less active his whole adult life, but his dad always moved Brad's records wherever he went. Now his dad is really sick and terminal. His last wish is Brad will go back to church, so he has come to some activities and church a few times. His wife and step son aren't members. They are really funny. They don't always understand the missionary rules. Like they invite us to play poker, turn on movies for us (Disney), and stuff. 

Well they were still cooking dinner when we showed up. They live by the old country club in San Marcos, so a lot of people have golf carts... Brad came in and asked if Elder Wilde and I would drive the cart to 7/11 to get some olive oil really fast... so we did. It was funny. It was cool to meet with them. His wife was going to come to church because Sister Prather is leaving, but they ended up not... We will keep working on it!

Here is the story that explains the picture and title...

Saturday we got transfer calls and I was a bit disappointed. I love TOV, but the lack of success has really taken its toll on me. My attitude has been much better, but I really just hit a low on Saturday. I was in a bad mood as we were going to houses and getting a bit rejected. I had my head down and out of the corner of my eye looked across the road and saw something large moving. I started crossing and Elder Wilde says, "Where are you going?"

"There's a turtle in the road...." 

Sure enough, there is a 50 pound tortoise walking in the road!!! Nobody was around. Just 2 missionaries and a tortoise... As we kept it from getting ran over, some neighbors came over, we figured out where it belonged (It escaped a backyard where it had just been dropped off as a pet). But yeah. We rescued a tortoise. 

Then 10 minutes later we helped get a chihuahua out of an intersection. It was crazy.  We called it "Safari Saturday".

Sunday was Stake Conference. It was really good. President and Sister Kendrick spoke. We had dinner with the Grochmals. They are the coolest. He played semi pro hockey before his mission  and is the Elder's Quorum president. That night we saw Benny. He is less active and wants us to come teach him. He is cleaning up his life. 

Today is our last Pday as a zone. We are taking on the Escondido Zone in some games, so that'll be cool.

I know that this work is hard. REALLY HARD. I am not a patient person. I am being forced to be though. I joke and say, "I wish Heavenly Father would just hurry up and teach me to be patient already." But I love being a missionary. This is not my work, but His. The next transfer may be hard, but I know Heavenly Father is keeping me here for a reason. We will turn this ward around!

Love you guys!

Elder Kapp

                                                               My Birthday

              Emerald Heights, San Marcos. (You can see the ocean, but the sun ruined the picture.)

The less active family we had dinner with needed us to go to 7/11 for olive oil real quick,

so they had us take the golf cart.

                                      We rescued a tortoise that was walking in the road.

                                                                    Typical day in TOV.

Transfers this next week!

Hey everyone,

Sorry we are emailing a couple days late. Our P-Day was pushed back because of President's Day and Zone Training Meeting.

Last week we had zone conference. It was really cool to be around the other missionaries and hear from President and Sister Kendrick. They are amazing. I learned so much was able to feel the spirit so strongly. I am really sad President and his wife will be going home this June. They are such great and loving people and I love being one of their missionaries.

On Wednesday we went to the Grow's to pass off everything to Bro Rios, the new Ward Mission Leader. Brother Grow is moving to the Bay Area and we are all really sad.

Thursday we taught Jim Busike. I don't think we are going to go back. He was baptized when he was 13 but never had a testimony. While teaching him, I asked him a few questions that made him contradict his statements and Elder Wilde and I agreed that he wasn't open to the spirit. So we hope he will soften his heart in the future. All of our other usual Thursday appointments cancelled, but we did pick up a new potential couple, Dane and Natalie.

Friday we helped the Grows pack up and we said goodbye to them. It was sad. They were extremely involved in the ward. After we said goodbye, we had exchanges. I got to go with Elder Haskell in Twin Oaks Valley. It was awesome. We went to the Birch's and, sure enough, we got root beer floats.

Saturday we did some service for a new move in, the Butlers. The wife is Thai and really hard to understand. We ended up just helping them fix their sprinklers. Elder Haskell and I got to put our "Farmer" and "Landscaping" experience together to help them out. It was fun. Sister Butler fed us SO MUCH pasta. It was so much food. We went by a bunch of solid potentials, but all of them fell through...

Sunday we had regional conference. Elder Renlund gave a great talk that really made an impact on me. We went to Al's for lunch and then dinner.

Monday was a tough day. We didn't have much luck at all. After dinner we went with the Grochmals, Elders Quorum President and his wife, to Dane and Natalie's for a lesson, but they weren't there. We were so frustrated. However, we did pick up a new potential, Alex, who we are teaching tomorrow.

Yesterday was a fun day. We went to In-N-Out with Brother Birch and a less active in the Sister's area, Benny. They passed him off to us. He is trying to clean up his life and has tattoos all over his body. He was super nice and is coming to Stake Conference with us this week. After dinner, Brother Birch drove us to a bunch of potentials, such as Dane and Natalie, Jim Nelson, and he just clicked with all of them. Bro Birch has a gift with people and missionary work. I don't know if we will teach Dane and Natalie, but Brother Birch befriended them and is going back later... :)

Today we played soccer at the park and ate at Costco. It's been a fun week. Transfer calls are coming on Saturday. We will see if I am going or staying!

What I really learned this week is how hard it can be to be happy when you are looking down. You can't feel the spirit if you are constantly feeling stressed and contention. Celebrating all of the little successes and being the best companion I could be has helped a little bit. It's also nice to have members realize that we are working really hard even though the numbers haven't been there.

Also, we found old progress records (records of each of the people they teach per week and all their numbers. i.e. # of contacts, lessons, and investigators) from TOV from over 5 years ago. They baptized over 10 people a year 3 years in a row! What I realized is this:

-First.  Holy cow. They were teaching a TON of people. Some progress records.

-Second. They were contacting between 30-60 people A WEEK! Currently we are contacting over 190-250 a week.

-Third.  Referrals. They were getting referrals, most of them families, every week. They were being contacted, taught, and fellowshipped.

- Fourth.   Baptismal dates. Most of the investigators had a set date to be baptized.

This is what I decided. Missionaries NEED members to help them find people to teach. We contact over 5 times more people on our own efforts, but we aren't seeing the results. When people are fellowshipped by members, not only do they learn better but they stay!! A lot of those names we saw on that list are now active members such as Al Stroes (Assistant ward mission leader) , Byron Lawson (High Priest & Ward Missionary) , and Brother Weber (Stake Secretary). We are going to try to get more referrals now.

I love all of you. I am excited to email you on Monday. I am grateful for all of your prayers.

Elder Kapp

Pushing through the pain = Better Results

Week 4 is put away!

It has been a good week full of many challenges, opportunities, and general fun stuff.

The week started pretty slow. Our bishop gave us a list of new move ins and people who we need to try to get the addresses for. On Tuesday we had dinner with the Grows. Brother Grow has been out ward mission leader and he has been awesome! He has helped us so much, but he is moving this week. We are going to miss them.

Wednesday is when the fun started. IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY! And we had our home inspection... So we spent the night before and the morning of cleaning the apartment. But after I opened my presents, we went to the church and the sisters baked the cake the family sent me. That was cool. After, we felt like going to Kevin's. Which is weird, because we had decided to drop him... But we went there and his little brother, Cesar, was locked out of the house. He is 11 years old and we ended up playing soccer with him for over a half hour and talking to him about scouts and being taught. When he got a hold of his mom (on our phone), he asked her if he could do scouts. We are working it out and meeting them tomorrow!

Also, we got free girl scout cookies from a member!

Thursday, I had my quarterly interview with President Kendrick... It went really well. I am really sad he is going to be leaving in June. While I was waiting for my turn to interview, we were just talking to Sister Kendrick. They are two of the funnest and loving people I've met. I really enjoyed it. President gave me some really great pointers and encouragement.

Thursdays are crazy for us. Every Thursday we teach 2 less actives and 1 part member family. 

At 1:00 we taught Jim. He was baptized when he was 13 but hasn't been active for over 25 years. He likes hearing what we really believe rather than what he has heard before. 

At 7:00 we met with the Alsnaurs. Saralyn is great, but her husband still won't take the lessons... Even though he comes to church every week... He is a super nice guy.

At 8:00 we teach the Hollmans. They are older and work on Sundays and can't come to church. The ward was surprised we even got in, but we have a good relationship with them.

Friday was a little rough at first. I woke up feeling really sick. We had weekly planning and it took FOREVER!!! We went to dinner with the Wongs. They are less active and haven't been for 20 years, but are super strong spiritually. They say they are taking a break from church. They fed us filet mignon. It was amazing. I got to give the dinner message and I invited them to come to church with us. They said probably not this week, but soon. 

After dinner we had miracle after miracle. We have struggled to find new people, but in 30 minutes we set 3 lessons with new potentials for this week. WOW! Just like that our area came to life.

Saturday we pounded the pavement. We stopped by over 10 potentials and set times to come back with most of them. IT'S FINALLY PICKING UP! We have the potential to pick up over 6 investigators and 2 families this week.  If we had bad attitudes and gave up it wouldn't have happened. Heavenly Father always blesses us when we take those last few, difficult steps. Just like working out, when it starts hurting and getting hard that's when we see the most results. The harder we push through the difficult parts, the better the results will be. 

Tonight we have a lesson and have a lot of work to do. Tomorrow we have zone conference, which I am very excited for.

Also, we went to Nordstrom Rack today to buy ties and a member saw us and bought us all ties :)

Thank you for all the birthday wishes and cards! It means a lot! Love you all!!

Elder Kapp

"I'm going to cook up this chicken for kids in Mexico"

Yup. Weird title for an email, right?

This last week has been very up and down, but ended on an 'up'. 

Monday was a tough day for me. I was feeling really homesick and was not in a good mood. My companion and I hadn't been getting along the best and it had added a lot of stress and pressure. By Monday, it had added up quite a bit. However, I was able to calm down and feel better before we went out to work. 

Alright, so here is the story from the title. Our investigator is Kevin. He is an interesting guy... He is a 22 year old Mexican kid who has a 3 year old daughter that doesn't live with him. Monday night, we were on our way to Kevin's house after dinner and we saw this guy pushing a shopping cart and we thought, "Let's go talk to him." Guess who? It was Kevin and he had a shopping cart full of over 100 pounds of raw, frozen chicken. We asked him if we could help him push it home. So there we are. 2 missionaries and a Mexican kid. Pushing a shopping cart full of bags of chicken. Mom, you would have been so proud. So we are pushing this, and it wasn't until like 10 minutes that I asked:

"Kevin, what the heck are you doing with a hundred pounds of chicken?!"

"My friend in Mexico gave me a crazy good deal. I'm going to cook it up and give it to kids in Mexico who juggle for money and food."

Elder Wilde then volunteered us to help him cook this chicken the next day. He accepts and we FINALLY got to his house. (We pushed it for a long time and it was uphill!)

Tuesday, we had district meeting and when we showed up to help Kevin cook his chicken, he wasn't there. I really wasn't too disappointed because it was all just a sketchy situation, but it would have been a heck of a story to tell my kids about.

Later that night, we taught our potential investigator, Kevin. (We are only allowed to teach people named Kevin... Just kidding...) He was super receptive. He was raised Catholic, but never chose it for himself. He accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would pray if it was true and if he should be baptized. However, he is in his 20's so we passed him off to YSA. They taught him later that week and it went really well!

That night our next door neighbor, who we thought might have died, stopped us on our way to our apartment. She said she had a seizure and she asked if we could teach her how to pray again. NOTE: She HATED us when we first moved in. Like, makes her son come inside if we were walking by. Now we might teach her... MIRACLES HAPPEN!

Wednesday, we went on exchanges. I went to Discovery Hills ward. Elder Waite took me to the 'crime filled' road in San Marcos... I'm so grateful I live in Utah. That place was SCARY. The exchange went well.

We got our haircut on Thursday by a nonmember wife. Her husband is less active. It went really well! Maybe we will teach her when she is ready.

That night we went to Killer Pizza From Mars for dinner. The name and pizza was awesome!

On my exchange, I asked Elder Waite what I could do to be a better missionary. He told me I needed to focus more on charity and love towards my companion. I have been doing that and it has made a big difference. I don't agree with Elder Wilde a lot. But I have decided to be more humble and love the kid. I have been happier. I need to get back to the happy me I was before my mission. We are working on that this week. We will see how that goes.

Love you all! Thanks for the support!

Elder Kapp

                                            This is the kind of truck Mormon families need

Still working hard....

Hey everyone,

This last week has been very different. I am with my new companion, Elder Wilde. He is from Idaho Falls and was serving in La Costa, Del Mar before here. He has been out for 5 months. He is a nice kid and we are working hard.

Tuesday we picked up an interesting Potential Investigator. His name is David and he works at Walmart right by our apartment. We have talked to him quite a few times and he had told us he grew up in this religion that is like Amish, but more modern. (...?) I saw him on Tuesday and he said he wanted to meet with us. Because he is YSA aged and we don't think he is in our area, we told him we could set him up with the YSA Elders, but he said he wanted to talk to me. So we are still trying to work on that and try to pass him off to the YSA. He is awesome though.

On Wednesday we had our Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. That was really cool. Elder Fu, who was serving in the Chandler's ward was on it. He was in a group that talked to the general authorities. (I remembered him from when he came to Swig with the Chandlers.) It was cool to think that all the missionaries in the world were watching the same thing. 

On Thursday we taught Saralyn Alsnaur. She was inactive for over 25 years and decided to come back to church over a year ago. She has 2 crazy sons. They are fun. Her husband, Rob, isn't a member, but said he doesn't want to hear our lessons. But his wife asked if she could take them as a refresher and Rob usually sits in. He comes to Sunday every week with his wife and sons. So he is an "active nonmember". The awesome thing is Saralyn was called as Second Counselor in the Primary on Sunday, so we are SUPER excited for her.

Friday we worked really hard to meet with Kevin and teach him, but he wasn't there. We also met with another Potential Investigator, Adam. He is 16 and lives in a boys home. He wasn't there when we went to teach him, but we ended up catching him on Saturday. We went to this restaurant with the sisters because we didn't have member dinners and this older member from another ward saw us and paid for our meal and asked us to sit with her and her family/friends. It was a blast. I love old people:)

Friday night, we realized we had the potential to teach 4 lessons on Saturday. Elder Wilde and I decided that we were going to make Saturday "the best day of our mission". We did, but not how we wanted. Kevin, Marilyn, Adam, and this man we had an appointment with all bailed!!! It was frustrating! But we still met TONS of people. We contacted over 55 people and picked up a couple potentials. To end the day, we got rained on. It wasn't very fun because we didn't see it coming. 

Sunday was ward conference. The stake was there and it was a really good day of church. No investigators showed up, but we got to eat dinner at Al's. That is always the best. He is such an amazing member. I can't believe all that he does, especially after being a member for only a year and a half. But last night, after Al's, we met with a Less Active, Part Member family and the non member wife said she would cut our hair for FREEEEEEE!!!!! When we were walking back to the apartment we met this kid walking his dog and I stopped him and talked to him for a minute. We set up a time to teach him. His name is Kevin. We are teaching 2 Kevins. 

Today is our Zone Activity. I still don't know what we are doing, but the Zone Leaders said they would bring their lacrosse sticks. That will be fun to play lacrosse again!

The week was a little bit hard, but I know we just have to be patient. Heavenly Father is always there for us. We sometimes feel inadequate or lonely, but He always is there. Like always, I am being taught patience this transfer. It's okay. I have 2 years to figure it out ;)

I love you all and hope you have an enjoyable week!

Elder Kapp

                                                      TOV youth Crab Soccer Team

                                                            We saw a possum

                                                           New Comp. Elder Wilde