Torrey Pines YSA Week 7 - Prayers are answered!

Hey everyone! This last week has been such a blessing to me. I just want to testify that Heavenly Father answers prayers. He always does. We just need to show faith.

For the last 5 months, Torrey Pines elders haven't had any investigators. I have been here for 6 weeks and have been praying for success. This last week I decided to fast for investigators. I prayed we would find an elect investigator.

This last week we picked up a new investigator. His name is Austen. He was taught by Del Mar Ward and has taken all the lessons. He believes it is all true, but just has a couple things he needs to give up before he can be baptized. He just graduated High School.

We also got 2 solid member referrals. We are going to start teaching them next week.

We also got more than 5 missionary referrals. We are checking up on them this week.

I can't express how grateful I am for my blessings. I know Heavenly Father blesses us when we humble ourselves to ask for His help. I am so excited to spend more time in this area! It is a blessed time!

So run down of the week.

Monday: We played family feud for FHE. It was a ton of fun! My team won :)

Tuesday: We had lunch at the Cross's and spent the day with Elder Marchand while he waited for his new companion.

Wednesday: We had our Zone Welcome and met all the new missionaries in the zone.

Thursday: We just had institute

Friday: We started visiting the whole ward list. And I held a tarantula.

Saturday: We stopped by so many people trying to figure out people we didn't know on the ward list.

Sunday: We had church and all that good stuff. For 3rd hour we had a combined lesson on Dating by Bishop Romney... That was... nice...

Monday: Memorial Day! We went to a FHE party. Elder Spencer and I played some good badminton! And we just had a normal day!

Tonight we are going to stop by Beach Volleyball night to see if Austen makes it there. It will be good!

I love you all so much! I hope you have a good week! Congrats to those graduating! Enjoy summer!!

Love, Elder Erik Kapp

                                          Yes, I was freaked out to be holding a spider

                                                             Just another pretty sunset

Torrey Pines YSA Week 6 - Transfers...

Hello everyone! Elder Kapp here live from Carlsbad California!

I just felt like starting this email like a news cast. Just the mood I was in today. This last week was really good. A blessed week, indeed! We got transfer calls... Elder Kapp is going to be transferred to......

I am staying here... with Elder Spencer... :)   

Here's the run down of our week...

Monday we played kickball. That was a lot of fun! My team won. Not that we were being competitive or anything... but we won...

Tuesday we volunteered at the Community Resource Center. It is like the equivalent of the bishop's storehouse except not Mormon. While we were there we got a call from Del Mar with a referral. Then I hung up and Olivenhain called and gave us a referral. I walked inside and 10 minutes later we get a call from an unknown number. It was Sisters from Phoenix Arizona giving us a referral. (It was cool because I knew one of the sisters! I met her at Kole Cook's farewell. Her name is Sister Greener) So all of that was really great and a lot of potential for us!

On Thursday we had Zone Conference. It was awesome! I love hearing from President and the Assistants. It was sad because he goes home at the end of this next transfer. I will really miss him. After that I had exchanges with Elder Gantner. We went to Institute and talked to a lot of people. That night he got called to be a district leader, so I spent the beginning of Friday in Carlsbad 4th ward while he was at a training meeting.

Friday we had home inspections and planned. It was kind of an average day.

Saturday we were able to talk to a ton of people and see all of our homeless buddies on the streets. They are so funny. We gave one of them a Book of Mormon, then as this group was walking by he said, "Hey! Have you read this book? Here have it!" It's cool when people do your job for you and place BOM's for you. No complaints whatsoever.

Sunday we had a bit of disappointment. Alex and the other investigators didn't show up to church... Ahhh.... The struggle of a missionary...

Today for FHE we have Family Feud. That will be a blast! We are going to get in touch with our investigators and try schedule lessons. Hopefully we will have lots to update you all on next week. We will try to baptize someone in the next 7 days, but President wants us to set righteous and reasonable goals so don't be too heartbroken if that actually takes place in a few weeks. BUT WE WILL BAPTIZE THIS TRANSFER! We feel the work picking up. It will be the first baptism in this area in a while.

I love you all and appreciate all the support. you all are great and I love you!

Elder Erik Kapp

-- 

Elder Erik Kapp

California Carlsbad Mission

451 West Bobier Drive

Vista, CA 92083-1906

Torrey Pines YSA Week 5 - Elder Scrooge and Elder Amish

Hey everyone. It's that time of the week again. This last week, of course, has been a good time. As Elder Myers says, "Let the good times roll." And they be rollin'.

Our week started with an excellent FHE. We played Bunko. Well, when I say "we" I mean "they".  Because the missionaries weren't allowed to play because we can't play games of chance. But I was there for moral support and mostly just ate candy. But it was fun! Today we are playing Kickball for FHE.

Tuesday we tried to contact referrals and had dinner at our Bishop's house. The ward played beach volleyball, but we just stand on the path because our mission ends at the sand. Which is a bummer we can't play. It looks fun!

Wednesday we got to go to the mission home in Carlsbad to pick something up from Sister Kendrick. She's the best!

Thursday was zone training meeting. I had to give a discussion on "Becoming a Superstar Missionary". I was really stressed out because about an hour before I decided I needed to rewrite. I didn't quite finish the whole rewrite thing. So I got up and I think it went well. We also went to Institute that night which is always a blast! I loved learning about the New Testament. Except I was sick Thursday, so it was a struggle to keep my head up. But the spirit was strong!

Fridays are always interesting. We had Weekly Planning and helped Matt with building his house. He took us out for lunch. We got sushi. All I can say is if you like sushi, you be you. I don't. I don't get why people would enjoy eating raw fish. I also got cooked (barely) salmon and miso soup, which is fermented soy bean soup with tofu and seaweed... Not my favorite meal. The dumplings were great though!

Also, Friday we picked up a solid potential investigator! He wants to come to church and activities before he takes the lessons, but he is super sincere and solid. His name is Alex and is planning on church next Sunday! It will be nice to start teaching lessons again!

Saturday was the usually work grind. Stopping by members, asking everyone we see if they want to learn about Jesus, and that kind of stuff. We taught some active members, the Cross's, that morning. They always make us malts. Those are good!

Sunday we went home teaching with Blake, a member in our ward. We went to church and had dinner with the Poppletons. They are super cool. They have lots of costume type things for plays and we took some funny pictures which will be included.

Today for Pday we have zone activity at the Jones'. They are some members in the Olivenhain ward who have a big house in Rancho Santa Fe. That will be a blast.

This last week I have been really working on my studies of the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I have prayed about it. I wouldn't leave so much behind at home to preach a bunch of lies. (especially for how much we get paid 😉)  This gospel is true! It brings peace and happiness to our lives! I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love Elder Kapp

PS we have a giant picture of Jesus in our apartment.

-- 

Elder Erik Kapp

California Carlsbad Mission

451 West Bobier Drive

Vista, CA 92083-1906

Torrey Pines YSA Week 4 - Tisms and Skyping Momma

Hey everyone! This last week was a good one! Torrey Pines is a blessed place to be. It was good to Skype the family yesterday. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! I hope you all enjoyed it as well.

Last Monday we had a Cinco De Mayo party for Family Home Evening. FHE is one of my favorite parts of serving in the YSA. It's so fun! Tonight we are playing Bunko. That'll be sweet! I've never played but I know moms love it, so it should be good.

I went on exchanges to Del Mar Ward on Wednesday with Elder Yancey. That was a whole lot of fun! One of the best parts was visiting with this elderly lady in their ward who lives in a nursing home. She has a pretty bad memory (possible Alzheimer's). It was really cool, but she kept repeating herself over, and over, and OVER! She had like the same 15 things she kept telling us. She asked us where we were from 6 times. Eventually we just started having fun with it and said what we knew she was about to say. The funniest part was right before we left. I shared a message and we did 'eenie meenie' for who would pray, which was me. We got up and walked to the door and she asked, "Can we say a prayer before you leave?" Elder Yancey began to say, "Sister Phillips, we just said one." But I cut him off and said, "We'd love to! Should we do eenie meenie? Eenie, meenie, minee, mo. Oh, Elder Yancey looks like it's you!" And so we said another closing prayer :)

Thursday we had Institute. It was so cool! We learned about the period of time between the Old and New Testaments. Lot's happened during that time! It was really interesting to learn about it. I hadn't studied that period of time in church before.

The highlight of my week was Saturday. Wednesday Elder Wilde (My last comp) called me at night telling me that David, our investigator we taught and dropped, was going to be baptized. I didn't even know he was being taught again! Elder Wilde and I picked up David in TOV. He was homeless and a recovering alcoholic. After teaching him for a while, he disappeared and we later found out he relapsed. (We went out on the streets at night and found him with Brother Birch.) I guess he just showed up sober and said he wanted to be baptized. It was an incredible experience to finally get a baptism! I am so proud of David.

I have a strong testimony of this gospel. Every week we encounter anti Mormon material and repeated rejection. However, this church still stands and will continue to stand. This is Christ's living church on the earth today. It  brings us happiness and peace. Because of Jesus Christ and His atonement we can feel peace and comfort when we are in need. I know if we ask for help, our Father will always receive us with love. There is NOTHING we can do to make Him turn His back on us. He gave us the atonement so because we would mess up. Not using the atonement and living with your guilt and shame is like dehydrating in the desert when you have a cooler of fresh, cold water available. We too often say, "I can't be forgiven" or "There's no way". All you have to do is open what is available for you and ENJOY THE PEACE IT BRINGS!

I love you all! Thank you for all the love and support!

Elder Erik Kapp 

Picture 1 is David's baptism

Picture 2 is this homeless guy we met and sang songs with.

Torrey Pines Week 3 - Racin dem J-Dubs

This last week was for sure a fun one! We still aren't teaching any lessons, but we are working hard to get the members pumped about missionary work. On Monday we had our talent show for FHE. We did a little skit. I don't have pictures of it yet, but I will see if I can get some. It was a lot of fun! There is a lot of talent in our ward! 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Kendrick. Those are always great. It was good to talk to him and ask questions on how to better work in a YSA. 

Wednesday we did a lot of service. We helped this guy Matt build his house. It was good, but I don't think he is really interested in our message. 

Thursday we had our district meeting and institute. A lot of people are here from college for the summer. It was cool to see lots of new people.

Friday we went to dinner at the Leavitts. They live in The Bridges, which is a super fancy neighborhood where Phil Mickelson lives. To get to our lesson on time after dinner, we went on a dirt path over this hill below where Arnold Schwarzenegger used to live. Off roading is scary in a Corolla. We had our lesson with the Cross's. They have two YSA kids. They are just helping us so they can hear the lessons and we can keep teaching skills up. They were very hard and complicated to teach. It was really frustrating, but good. 

On Saturday we went to stop by this referral we got from Carlsbad YSA. We were walking to the front door and realized we were following Jehovah's Witnesses to the same door. We played it cool. They then went to the same door on the opposite side. They were totally trying to find the same guy as us! We hurried and texted the YSA sisters for the referrals phone number and called him while the JW's were knocking on the door. Nobody came to the door, but we set up a time to teach him next week! It was really funny walking back to our car past them and thinking, "WE WON!" 

Later Saturday we had dinner with Dallin Large. He is the coolest guy. We went to this build-your-own-pizza place. He's awesome and a great missionary. After Dallin's we went to Cameron Monahan's. Also a great guy. We started talking about ward mission stuff and then he asked if we wanted some frozen yogurt. So we talked about missionary work over some fro-yo. That's the way we like to do things here in Torrey Pines :)

Sunday was really different. We had a branch from the San Diego mission come and combine with our ward. There were lots of people there. After church we went to Michael Conners (the guy with the huge mansion I sent pictures of earlier) to watch this young singles devotional. The house was huge. While waiting for people to show up, we were walking around and looking at it. We spent 15 minutes just in the master bedroom! That picture with the mirrors I sent earlier was the bathroom... It's huge. It has a sauna and an upstairs... 

Today I had to go to a chiropractor. My back is a little messed up. Tonight we are having a Cinco De Mayo party for FHE. Should be a good time!

I have been reading a lot in the scriptures about the 17 points of Christ's true church. How great is it that we live in a time where Christ's church is on the earth today!! It's such a great feeling. I know this is the true gospel. If you don't know if it's true, do some research and then pray about it. Then you will know! :)

I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Kapp 

--

Elder Erik Kapp

California Carlsbad Mission

451 West Bobier Drive

Vista, CA 92083-1906

           Pictures of the house I was in yesterday in Rancho Santa Fe

                                                              The Bathroom

                                        Met this guy in their dining room.
                            We're going to make a 'heavy metal' rock band together 😂

Week 2 Torrey Pines YSA - Miracles for Days

Hey everyone!

So this last week was quite the turn around! Love it when that happens. Last Monday I totally rolled my ankle playing basketball, but remarkably it didn't effect my week at all.

Tuesday we had dinner with the Cross's. They are super cool. Their son Daniel is in our ward. They really like us and are really funny. He worked at Sea World for his career as a trainer! After dinner we did service for them. That consisted of us refilling ammunition for his guns. Basically, we were taking shells, filling them with gunpowder, and putting the projectile together. It was cool!

Wednesday we got a referral from the Encinitas elders for a less active named Chris. He moved here from Utah for rehab. He hasn't been to church since he was 14 years old. We contacted him and invited him to institute. On Thursday, Chris was picked up by Dallin (a super solid member). When we got there, there were three of them. Chris talked one of his non-member friends, Cisco, to come. They both felt the spirit and it was just awesome. We gave them both copies of the Book of Mormon. Then we had a late dinner with Vanessa and Gosha. Vanessa is from Brazil and Gosha was baptized 2 weeks ago. She is from Polland. It was super good.

Friday we ate dinner at the Pecks. Their daughter just got home from a mission and is a member in our ward. We ate Greek. We were eating and I thought, "This is really cool tasting beef. I wonder how it was cooked." Right then I heard someone say, Will you pass the lamb?

.... I turned to the Sisters and said, "What am I eating?!" "Lamb"

".... Alright... Cool." So yeah. I ate lamb. And then after dinner they showed us their bunnies. They were adorable.

After dinner we went to Dallin's. We set up a personal mission plan and asked him how he thought we could move the work forward in  our ward.

Later that night we were contacting around. This Christian guy came up to us and asked if my feet hurt. Duh, my feet hurt! So he asked if he could pray for my feet. I was like, yeah sure. He did and told me to walk and test it out... So I did. He asked if it was 100% healed. I said no, but it felt better (didn't want to lie or hurt his feelings). SO he tried again, but now touching my foot telling the Lord this pain was to leave my foot. This time when he asked if it was healed, I said yes (because of time and convenience).

Ironically, 5 minutes later one of our Non-Members, Devin, called us over across the street at this burger place. He had a work accident a few weeks ago where a forklift broke his foot in 3 places and 1 break in his knee. We prayed for it with him last week. He said, "The pain is completely gone! Will you pray for it again." So he popped his foot up and asked me to lay my hands on it to pray. (yep. GROSS) I think I was touching it with just my finger tips, but he said he felt relief!

Saturday we did a sweet service project. But here's the miracle of the day.

We were driving around Encinitas looking for a place to park. The Encinitas Street fair was going on and we knew there was a ton of people there to talk to. As we were driving, I saw 2 familiar faces. I yelled out the window and Jaycee McMaster and McKayla Evans from Twin Oaks Valley came over where we pulled the car over. Jaycee is dating Frankie, my investigator from TOV and Mckayla is Bishop's daughter. We talked about Frankie and how he is doing. She said he has been busy and a little nervous about getting baptized and said he missed me. She told us when we could visit him at work, which is in Cardiff right by our apartment.

Less than an hour later, we decided to walk down this dirt road. We had no idea where it went to. Lo and behold, standing there by his car at the end of the road is Frankie! It was super crazy. We talked about him being taught and baptism. He actually asked if we could teach him. That made me sad to have to say no. But It was good for him.

What are the odds they would be right there at that time. Both of them! Heavenly Father works in so many amazing ways.

Tonight we are performing a skit in the talent show tonight for FHE. That will be interesting... We will let you know how it goes.

I love you all. sorry the email was so darn long. Have a great week!

Elder Erik Kapp

-- 

Elder Erik Kapp

California Carlsbad Mission

451 West Bobier Drive

Vista, CA 92083-1906

Torrey Pines Week 1

Hey Everyone! The transfer went smoothly. I am now serving in Del Mar Stake in the Young Single Adults ward. It is cool! It is very different from what I am used to in Twin Oaks Valley or even Utah. I live real close to the ocean. Close like, I am looking at it right now from the library. How many people get to do that on their mission? The work is slower here. There isn't as much to do, but I am still getting used to it. I really like being in YSA. The people are the coolest. Being around people similar to your age is cool. Your first transfer is like being a greenie all over again. I feel like I don't know much and I'm a bit overwhelmed, but I am really excited.  

Right now we aren't teaching anyone. That's a bummer, but we are working hard to change that soon. I really enjoy having a full time car, but we bike sometimes too. It is crazy to see the ocean every day. The members are really cool! On Friday we went to dinner with Olivenhain Elders and we went to one of the co-founders of Rubio's for dinner. They were super cool!

There are lots of fancy stuff here. Fancy houses. Fancy cars. You name it! It feels weird serving here. It feels like I am on vacation. I will send some pictures, but my computer at the library won't let me. So they will come soon.

The one thing I have picked on is the importance of being humble and obedient. The commandments are given to us for a reason. We need obey EVERY commandment. We can't pick and choose. Heavenly Father blesses us no matter what. We should give him the same courtesy. Because once we stop obeying one, it leads to another, and another, and another, and before you know it you are far away from the straight and narrow path. Don't ask questions and obey and I promise you will find blessings.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Elder Kapp