It' Been A Minute

Hello everyone! It has been a while since my last pday so a lot has happened so bare with me and let's get into it:

- I had a late bday dinner with a family in the ward and it was a good time.

- We handed out backpacks with school supplies to kids in need and it was the most wholesome, fulfilling service. 

- We started to contact at the metro stop and have met some cool people!

- It's started to cool down so we've been able to do more studying and planning outside and it's been so nice!

- We met this neat guy named Henok while finding at a park. We shared a scripture with him, had a good conversation, he came to church and our FHE activity. We also had a lesson with him that ended up being 3 hours long! I was so tired after haha. But it's was a good conversation and we talked about a lot of different things. He's planning to come to church on Sunday. We just have to help him to come to know that there is one true church on the earth.

- Our mission member of the 70 (Brother Haynie) came and did a training with us from 9:30-3:00. It was long but SO good! I learned so much! 

- Our water went out unexpectedly (we think they were working on a leak) the other night which was just funny. Luckily it was back in the morning. Haha 

- We met a super cool guy yesterday morning while contacting. He loved the verse we read with him and was really impressed by what we were doing when we explain it. He made some funny comments and ironically was heading to the liquor store. We ran into him as he was leaving the liquor store and just said, "I'm sinning" and we told him that's what repentance is for lol. He said he'll come to church so we'll see if he pulls up.

- We went to visit an inactive member (wasn't home) so we knocked the neighborhood a bit and had an interaction that we initially thought would end badly but it ended being good. After we knocked this lady looks at us through her screen door, we told her who we were and she said she was busy. We told her, "no worries" and she responded by saying, "no be happy". At this point we were scared we offended her so we said yeah. And she asked if we wanted a happy worm. We came to learn that happy worms are what she makes for kids with adhd. They're full title is, "don't worry, be happy worms". We had a really good conversation with her, learned she catholic so she's not interested but she gave us a rundown of the neighborhood and was impressed by what we are doing when we explained it. Super awesome!

●I met so many cool and kind people this week and feel SO blessed.

- For pday we went to the temple! It was so good! I love going to the house of the Lord.

Spiritual thought:

Brother Haynie told us to allow ourselves to become different and to allow God to make the change.

I think as people sometimes we get scared to loose our personalities as we adjust to do God's will. But that's the whole point. The only change that will take place will be good. We will becoming more like our Savior. So allow yourself to do what God's wants and be who he wants you to be.

(My next pday will be Tuesday because of transfers.)

Love you all!

- Sis Kapp

Park planning sesh

Park finding

Don't worry, be happy worm

Temple!

6 Months As A Missionary!

Hello everyone! We ended up deciding to go to the temple next week so normal pday this week. 

This week has been a little different than my typical weeks so let's get into it.

-Monday for pday we had a cereal breakfast with the sisters in our zone and then played some games with our district.

-Tuesday we had interviews with President Vance. We got to go to the mission home and had some cookies as we waited so no complaining here.

-Wednesday we had new missionary training and it was really good, I learned a lot! I also got to see Sister Hendrix! I love her!

-Thursday it was my birthday (thank you everyone for the birthday wishes). I got to call my fam in the morning and was able to visit lots of members. We played scrabble with a sweet old lady in our ward (Pauline) and I am SO bad at scrabble, luckily we weren't keeping score. We had a sweet spiritual thought with her on faith. We also made some visits and one seems sincerely interested so prayers his way cause we have almost no friends right now. 

Sister Esplin and I made a thing where we draw a paper from a bowl everyday to make our days more interesting. On Thursday we drew, "knock blue houses" and it did make our day quite a bit more interesting, so I recommend to any missionaries who need a switch up.

-Friday is when things took a turn. My comp had a bad reaction to a medication she was taking (she's okay) so we've been in the hospital since then. Hopefully she'll be discharged soon. And shout out to the STL's who drive me to and from the hospital everyday and stay the night with me.

-Sunday I went to the STL's ward which is Spanish so it was an interesting church service.

-Pday we're just hanging out at the hospital so I'll have lots of time to talk with my fam.

Spiritual thought: I wanted to share some scriptures from my little lesson with Pauline. We watched the Book of Mormon video for Alma 32-33 (which i recommend).

In Alma 33:22-23 it states,

"22 If so, wo shall come upon you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works. 

23 And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen."

It's through our faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can receive all of the blessings from it. The more we nourish our testimonies of the Savior and His Atonement, the closer we will be with him and the more comfort we will receive.

Love you all!

-Sister Kapp

Those who responded to be email last week thank you all! My email is being weird and wouldn't let me respond. Know that I read them and am grateful for them.

Sister Hendrix!

I'm 20! 🙉

Me and my hospital chair

Zone Conference & Exchanges!

 Hello everyone! 

This week was good.

-We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was really good. It was all about our missionary purpose and having faith and trusting in Christ.

-We went on exchanges Thursday. I left the area and was in the Spanish area for the exchange. I was very clueless throughout (because I don't know Spanish) but I learned alot from the STL I was with. I was able to share a verse in Spanish for one of our spiritual thoughts during our member meal and that was a neat experience.

-We did some service at this clothing donation center on Friday. We also made cookies and delivered them to members that we were impressed to and the Lord's timing is good because one member wasn't home and when walking to the car she pulled in and we got to talk with her and share a spiritual thought.

-Saturday was a finding and call filled day. We talked to this older guy who was smoking and invited him to church. He laughed and said he hasn't been to church in 40 years so I told him that it's the perfect time to start, he laughed and we gave him a card with the church info. Just one of the many fun finding experiences. While knocking we talked to this cool guy from Russia and he was asking us lots of questions and had a solid conversation with him. We planted lots of seeds! (We also got FROYO between everything so that made our day a little extra fun.)

-I gave my very first talk on my mission on Sunday. It was on my relationship with the Savior. And I wanna share a scripture I shared in my talk for my spiritual thought:

In Alma 29:9-10 it states,

"9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

I have been so blessed to have grown up in this gospel and have had so many amazing experiences that have helped me grow closer to the Savior. Being on my mission I have learned that yes that brings me so much joy but much more joy is felt when you help others to receive the gospel and build their own relationship with the Savior.

Love you all! (I think we're going to the temple next week so my pday should be Thursday)

Zone Conference

Exchanges with Hermana Rios

FROYO

First Full Week In DC

 Hello everyone! 

I have officially been in DC for over a week. The work here is much different from the sites but good in it's own way.

-We had a district council breakfast and we talked alot about baptism as it is the first covenant we make with God to gain eternal salvation. So our challenge this week was to invite at least one person to be baptized everyday. This seemed a bit scary at first but God provides and helps us fulfill his will. That day we got a Facebook referral from a lady interested in baptism! So we called her and she said she was interested and so we set up a time to meet with her. So we met with her the next day and it was such a spirit led conversation and we put her on date to be baptized. Now the hard thing I've learned about missionary work is that you can't control your friends decisions or force them to do anything. We planned on this friend coming to a baptism Saturday and church but a few texts, calls, and knocks at the door later we found out from a member in our ward that was going to give her a ride that she couldn't come and she was unable to come to church. So lots of prayers that she can feel the Lord's guidance.

-Another miracle is the other day we were having some not so successful visits and we're about to drive out of the parking lot and Sister Esplin sees this guy walking and decides to "drive chase him" and we had a good, long conversation with him and gave him a Book of Mormon.

-Something I've learned while out here is that I wish I knew Spanish and my Duolingo isn't cutting it out. We were knocking an apartment complex and this cute old Latino lady answers and she just talked to us for like 45 minutes all in Spanish, I was clueless but she was happy. Something cool is that some of the Spanish elders are actually teaching her and put her on date for baptism that evening! Another moment when I wish I knew Spanish was when we were knocking a neighborhood with not many interested people and we were about to leave but I felt like we needed to talk to this guy trimming his bushes. We go up to him and all he speaks is Spanish. Luckily Sister Esplin knew enough to invite him to the Spanish ward and he seemed interested.

-Another way the Lord provided was that in another area a new member told the sisters there about a lady he cares for at a nursing home and that he wanted the missionaries there (us) to visit her. So we did and found out she was a member, and sisters used to visit her but at some point during transfers her information wasn't passed to the next sisters. So I'm so excited to visit her every week! She has such a strong spirit!

-Though our friends we hoped for didn't come to church this week a new person did!

-For pday we played kickball with our president and his fam and our zone. It was lots of fun!

A few fun moments:

-Stealing the elders Maryland crab magnet off their car (we gave it back) 

-Making our district leader a cake for his birthday 

Spiritual thought:

The Lord works in mighty ways! In every "disappointing" moment the Lord provides light and miracles. All we need to do is to be like Nephi when getting the plates and exercise faith.

Love you all!

-Sis Kapp

Sunday personal study

Cake part 1

Cake part 2

P-day