October 19, 2015

The weather here has been a little crazy.  It will be cool in the mornings but by noon it gets pretty hot. This week has been a lot more like fall though because it’s been rainy and cool out. There was another fire and it made the air super bad!  When you walked outside you could barely see the house across the street but the rain helped with that a lot.

This week was full of miracles! On Wednesday I had a prompting that we should go visit a less active family that our bishop told us about. He told us that we would probably want to go over in the day time because the husband wouldn’t be there and we might be able to have  little more success. When we visited them the husband was there and you could tell that he was a little stand offish.  But, after talking to him and his family for a little bit he said that we should come and teach their family the lessons… What! I told him that he couldn’t joke around with missionaries about that kind of stuff.  He said “no really I think it would be good for us” .  So we made an appointment for the next day and it was awesome.  We have another appt. with them this week! We also found another investigator last week by visiting less actives.  She is dating a less active family’s son! We have an appointment with her tonight! Oh, and last night we had another awesome experience with a less active family.  Their 14 year old daughter goes to church every Sunday alone.  We had a half hour before we needed to be home last night so we went and visited them.  Little did we know this past week was their son’s 8th birthday. We talked to them about getting him baptized and getting their whole family to the temple. The dad went on a mission and both parents say they still have a testimony. I honestly can’t understand how someone could go on a mission and then come home and become less active. It just shows me the importance of having faith and holding onto it! I loved Elder James B. Martino’s talk in conference. He talked about how we can get answers to prayers and how we need to have real intent.  As we have hard times we need to try and remember the times when Christ has spoken peace to us. He said “what greater witness then of Jesus Christ.”.   Heavenly Father will not force us to have faith in him.  We HAVE to have the desire and want to believe.

Oh, and by the way, JON CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY AND THE CHILI COOKOFF ON SATURDAY! He is progressing so well I am so excited but I know that everything is all on the Lords time.

Love,
Sister Kappel

October 5 , 2015

Wow, this week has been full of ups and downs. I guess that is the way life is and supposed to be. If we don’t have the downs, the ups wouldn’t be so good. A lot has happened.  I don’t really know where to start. So, at the beginning of this week our mission president challenged us to find two new investigators this week.  He wanted to find 100 total for the whole mission. So we made it our goal to find two new investigators. We worked really hard all week but didn’t really have  lot of time for finding. We had some amazing lessons with Susan and Jon but we still weren’t finding anyone new. On Saturday we had some member referrals to go visit but none of them were working out. One of them being the most awkward experiences on my mission. They wouldn’t talk they just sat there and looked at us… well, I guess they are not the ones Heavenly Father has been preparing. It was hard because I had been praying so hard that we would find someone new. I felt like I had given my will to Heavenly Father and was trying to follow my promptings but nothing was really working out. So, yesterday we just went and visited a family that I have talked about before. At first they wanted nothing to do with us but by the time we left they loved us (this happened on Labor Day).  We have stopped by a few other times and did service for them and we really love them. When we stopped by on this particular day, it was just Trish the mom at home.  She told us that she has been looking for ways to bring the spirit into her home. We talked to her about conference and some other things. Then she said,” Can you girls come over on Wednesday night for dinner?”. Umm… YESSS! I asked her if we could teach a lesson and she said of course and that she really wanted us to! What?!!  That doesn’t just happen.   They didn’t want anything to do with the church a few weeks ago! They are amazing people and I love them so much and I can’t wait for them to be baptized haha!

I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of us and he cares about us sooo much! He will help us but, we have to want it.  We have to have faith that he can help us. I think a lot of times we pray thinking that if Heavenly Father answers my prayer then I will have faith.  But, we need to have the faith that he will answer our prayers. Faith comes before miracles.

I hope you all have an awesome week!

Love you all!

Sister Kappel

p.s. Here’s some pics of me filleting fish! Making my Dad proud!

September 28, 2015

This week has gone by so fast! I can’t believe that I have almost been with Sister Davis a whole transfer! She is so awesome and I learn so much from her every day. So, this week has been super busy.  I feel like I say that every week but this week has been extra crazy! We had to help out with Activity Days in both of our wards on Tuesday and Wednesday and that was a lot of fun! We also had a sister meeting on Wednesday.  All of the sisters in the mission met together and there are about 43 of us. It was super fun.  They just taught us how to be more lady like and how to not get fat haha! They also talked about defending our beliefs about families. It breaks my heart when I see families hard times. The Pedersen’s (MIracles family) have been having a very hard time. I can see satan ripping their family apart with addiction and stress about money.  I want to help them but it is so hard. Satan knows what he is doing when it comes to destroying families. He knows how important they are. In the General Women’s Session they talked a lot about families too and it just shows how big of a deal it is! We were all put into our families for a reason. Heavenly Father knew that is where you were supposed to be. He knew that is where you would grow and learn the most so that you could reach your full potential. I LOVE my family and I am so grateful for every single one of them. Every time I tell someone that I have four brothers they just look at me like “poor child”.   But, my brothers have taught me how to be tough and how to have fun and be a little reckless at times.  Then I have my perfect sister who has taught me how to be kind and how to make God a priority in my life. And my parents, they have taught me how to love unconditionally and to serve and to serve with all my heart. They have taught me how to try my hardest and that it is ok that I don’t do everything perfectly. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father put me in my family.

Life can be hard sometimes and things might not work out how you want them to but try to think about all the good things. I Loved President Uchtdorf’s talk on Saturday.
My favorite part was when he talked about how to let faith fortify every footstep and have hope so your eyes may will be opened to all our blessings and to love, because love is the most important thing we learn in this life.

We just had this new family move in and their son got in a really bad car accident a few years ago.  They were telling us that the doctors told them that what they have noticed that helps people heal the most is when their families have faith, a strong religious belief and a strong family relationship with loads of LOVE!

Love, faith, and hope can work miracles! I have seen it so many times! I hope that you all have an awesome week and know that I love you!

Love, Sister Kappel

September 21, 2015

We have a mission goal to get 400 baptisms by the end of the year and well, we only have like 154 or something so we still need a lot. The leaders of the mission had a meeting about it and were trying to figure out if they should change it or not.  In the meeting they all felt the spirit witness to them that if we work hard and get the members involved that we would be able to reach that goal of 400. The Lord has prepared 400 people this year for the Gospel and it is our job to find them. We have been working really hard with the members.  Getting them involved and excited about missionary work. We have been getting so many referrals.  It has been awesome!

I have been really working on fully consecrating myself to the work. I love being a missionary and I LOVE the blessings I have received in my life because of the Gospel. I know that the Church is true and we are the only church that has the fullness of the Gospel We have temples and the Priesthood authority directly from God! How exciting is that?!!  I Invite you all to think about the blessings you have received from the Gospel and share them! Everyone deserves to know that the true church has been restored! I invite you to pray for missionary experiences and I can promise you that if you have the desire to do missionary work and the faith that God will give you the opportunity to share the Gospel that you will be able to find someone to share the Gospel with.  I can promise you that as you do missionary work that you will feel closer to your Heavenly Father.  Your faith will grow and your testimony will increase! I know this because I have seen it in my life.  I have found so much joy in serving our Heavenly Father and sharing the Gospel.

This week has gone by so fast! It has been a little rough because Yoseli was suppose to be baptized on the 19th but she is still having a hard time coming to church. She is having a hard time with her marriage and I just want to be able to fix everything for her. I want to be able to just make her husband be a good father and make her come to church and have her whole family be baptized but no, they have their agency.  This must be what it is like for parents… sorry mom and dad I should have just listened to you! I know that Heavenly Father has his own timing and that he has a plan for Yoseli and for all the people we are teaching.  I know that his plan for them is way better then my plan for them. We have been able to see some cool things this week.  A lady, that I have been trying to contact since I came on my mission, finally opened her door.  She came to church on Sunday.  A father of a family that I love so much, who hasn’t been to church in over a year, came to church! Patience can be a hard thing to learn but when you have to wait for something it is so much sweeter!

I hope you all have a good week and if you have any cool missionary moments this week I would LOVE to hear them!

Oh, and I got to be a lunch lady this week!

Love,

Sister Kappel

September 11, 2015

The work is progressing but not without a few crazies.

So I just want to start by saying that I love being a missionary some times I wake up and I remember that I am a missionary and my heart is just so happy! I love this work! We have had some pretty memorable nights this week. Our lessons with Susan and Jon were so amazing.  They are both praying about being baptized. It is the best feeling ever when you can feel the spirit so strong in a lesson.  Then, you say something that you weren’t planning on saying but they tell you that what you just said was exactly what they needed.  Then you are like, “Wait, what did I just say”… We have been able to meet a few new people this week and talk to them about the Church. Last night we talked to these guys barbecuing outside.  They asked us if we were nuns haha but that gave us a great opportunity to talk to them about the church.  We gave one of the guys a Book of Mormon.  He told us that he read the Bible in prison and it helped a lot so he was excited to read the Book of Mormon. In Preach my Gospel it talks about how a lot of people are looking for the gospel.  They just don’t know it yet. I know, that as I learn more about the Gospel, my heart fills with so much love and I can’t imagine not having it.

So the crazies this week. Well, one of our less active members that we are teaching had a crazy panic attack this week while we were with him.  I thought he had stopped breathing and it totally freaked me out.  His wife told me to give him some water so I got a cup of water and started pouring it down his throat.  Don’t really know if that was a good idea but he started coughing all over me… I was sufficiently grossed out but I guess it was worth him not dying.

Life is good though.  I am thankful for the crazy people here because they remind me of my family hehe! I’m just kidding but I love it here!

Well, I hope you all have a good week!

I’m about to go to the temple!!!!

Love you all!

August 31, 2015

Well, my first week of being a trainer and she hasn’t died yet so that’s good! My new companion is Sister Davis.  She is from Southern California. We have so much fun together! Sorry, this will be a short email but we saw a miracle this week.

We had a goal to find one new investigator every week this transfer and yesterday after dinner we were like ok we have to get busy and find someone. I had been praying so hard that we would be able to find someone so  we would make our goal. I didn’t think it would be very good to have that goal and then the first week not find anyone. So, we first went to visit a less active family because I just felt like we needed to visit them but they weren’t home.  We were walking to the car and there was this old man sitting outside. We went up and talked to him and he was super nice. At first, when we asked him if he would like to know more about the church, he told us that he knew as much as he wanted to know. So we talked to him about some of his concerns.  The spirit was so strong and now we have an appointment with him on Wednesday!

I know that Heavenly Father blesses us according to our faith and I know that if we have the faith we will be able to see miracles everyday! I love being a missionary and I LOVE the Gospel with all of my heart!

I hope you all have a good week!

Love, Sister Kappel

Here’s a picture of Sister Davis and I, then one with the wonderfully crazy lady we live with!

Week 13

Hello everyone!

Well Sister Facer is home now. Sad, but she was awesome and we had an awesome last week together! She was an amazing missionary and I know that she will do some amazing things!

I am going to be training a new missionary… so wish me and my new companion luck!

On my mission we talk a lot about faith. I have realized just how powerful faith can be. A lot of people think that if they could see God or if he would send them a sign, then they would know that he was real. All they want is a miracle and then they would have faith.   I have learned that, sadly, it doesn’t work like that. Miracles do not bring faith but instead faith brings miracles! We have to remember to always have faith we can’t just have faith when we get answers to prayers or when we are seeing blessings.  We have to always have faith. We have to believe even when our prayers aren’t answered the way we wanted, even when we don’t see miracles.  We have to continue to believe and have faith. We need to hope in Christ, have faith in Christ, and trust Christ.

I’m not going to lie.  I am scared out of my mind to train a new missionary but I have faith that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing. I know that I am never alone. I know, as I said in my last letter, that Christ will multiply me if I trust him and that I can do anything through Christ!

I love you all and I hope that you all have a good week.

Love, Sister Kappel

P.S. A family in our ward has all these huge swords and they play Narnia with them… Its pretty fun, also we had some fun with cat tails…

 

Week 12

Sister Facer’s last full week. This past week was pretty busy and this coming week will be even more crazy but I have and will love every second of it! I love being on a mission. I love the good times but I also love the hard times because they make the good times that much better!

This past week we had zone conference and that meeting was life changing for me. It was like a mini MTC. We had a guy come who was our Mission President’s Stake President in Utah. He was so amazing! He talked about Christ’s life and some of the different miracles that he did. He talked about when Christ fed the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. He told us a story about when he was younger he hated public speaking. He would try to avoid it as much as possible but eventually he was asked to speak in sacrament meeting. He talked about Job but he was pronouncing it like job (where you work).  While he was speaking, he could see all his friends in the back laughing at him but he didn’t know why. At the end of his talk, the Bishop and a few other people came up to him and told him that he did good. Then, when he saw his friends, he asked them why they were laughing and they just told him how he was saying Job wrong. He then told himself that he would never speak in sacrament or in public again. He was mad at the Bishop and everyone who told him that he did good. He felt like they were making fun of him but when he got in the car to go home his dad, who never came to church but came to hear him speak, said that he did good and that he had a talent. He knew that his Dad didn’t have to say that so he thought well, maybe I will try it again. Now he is a seminary teacher and a stake president.  He explained to us how Christ multiplied him. Christ can multiply all of us beyond anything we could do on our own. He gives us strength and like it says in Philippians 4:13 “We can do all things through Christ which strengthens us”.

I loved this message and I hope you like it too.

This week there was a fire on the boarder of Oregon and Idaho.  I guess it was started by lightning, I don’t know if it is still going or not.  The smoke has been so bad that some mornings, when we walk outside there is ash on our car. My eyes and allergies have been going crazy but it is starting to clear up. It also makes the sunsets so beautiful.

Well I hope you all have a good week!

Love, Sister Caitlin Kappel

Week 11

This past week has been so amazing! I feel so blessed to have been able to see Miracle be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This might sound cheesy but as I watched the font fill up before the baptism my heart was just so full of love! I know why I am here on a mission and I haven’t had any doubts or regrets about it.  But as I looked at that water and then later saw Miracle be baptized, my love for the work was reinforced. I love the Gospel so much and I know that it will bless the lives of everyone who hears it. I just need to open my mouth and share it! I love in Ephesians 6: 11-17 it talks about putting on the armour of God.  As you look at it, there are a lot of things to protect us but the only thing that we have to “fight” with is the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Then, in verse 19, it talks about opening our mouths and being bold and sharing the Gospel. I love this because it gives me the courage I need to speak up and share what I love so much and what I know is true. 

We had a lesson with our investigator, Susan.  She told us at the beginning that she just wanted to talk to us to learn more about the church but, when we had a lesson with her this past week, we asked her if the things we had taught her helped her feel closer to Christ.  She said yes and also she told us that she loved talking to us because we had words for all the things she has felt and believed in her life. I love that because the things we teach people aren’t anything new. They are eternal truths that we have all learned before. I love being a missionary! I invite everyone who reads this to go out and talk to someone this week about the church and share the good news that Christ’s church has been restored! Don’t be scared. You will have help and remember that the gospel can only bless their lives. 

 

 

I love you all and hope that you all have a good week! 

 

Love, Sister Kappel 

Miracle’s baptism!

Week 10

This week has been super busy but that is a good thing when it comes to missionary work! Every week we see so many miracles everyday. Sometimes it is just a less active coming to church or seeing a change of heart in one of our investigators. My favorite part of being a missionary is being able to share my testimony everyday, not just on fast Sunday. Something I have been thinking a lot about this week is how I gained my testimony that the church is true, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that God is a loving Heavenly Father. I thought about all the different things I have done in my life and all the trials I have had and all the amazing times I have had. I realized that there was never a time that I just “got” my testimony but that it grows. Every time I have a prayer answered or something happens that shows me that Heavenly Father knows me and loves me. Even sometimes when I feel like giving up but somehow things work out and I make it through the day or even the hour.

Heavenly Father and Christ are always there for us.  They will never leave us alone. As we try to look at the big picture, we can see God’s hand in everything and that can testify to us of God’s love.

I know that this Church is true! I know it with all my heart! I know that there are times when I do have doubts but I think of all the times in my life that I know I have had divine help!

I invite everyone to think about how their testimonies and if you don’t have one or you don’t think you have one, think about the times in your life when you felt like giving up but you didn’t.  Why didn’t you give up? Also, think about the amazing times in your life, what made them amazing?

Here is a picture of Miracle and I! I love her so much! She is getting baptized August 8th!