The Birthplace of Cabbage Patch Dolls

Heyyy y'all!

I hope you guys are doing all right! Things are going great out here in Habersham County. It's interesting-- here in GA the counties are very very small compared to other states that I've seen. The reason that they did that is because back in the day they didn't want it to be more than a day's horse ride to the county seat. (Is that what it's called?) So, from my apartment I can drive ten minutes in any given direction and be in three counties other than Habersham where we live!

Babyland General Hospital

Last Monday after I wrote you all, everyone in our District came up to our place and then we headed to White county to do some sight seeing. We went to Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, which is the birthplace of Cabbage Patch Dolls. Hahaha... I thought that it was pretty creepy and awkward, but all the little girls there and the Sister missionaries in our district loved it. The whole place is decorated as a Cabbage Patch world and the climax of your trip there is watching a doctor "birth" a Cabbage Patch baby out of a cabbage... Yikes!

After that we went up to Helen, which is this cool tourist Bavarian Town. It's decorated to look like Gemany and the Alps and stuff. It has been Oktoberfest this past month so it's festive (people get drunk and dangerous on the weekends, but it's quaint on a Monday haha.)

All of our older investigators kind of dropped off the charts as progressing investigators, so we have been starting over with a whole new crowd doing good old lesson number one, the message of the Restoration of the Gospel. :) One thing that was super awesome/crazy/funny/inspiring this week: We were trying to visit a less active member, but she wasn't home so we walked off her porch and looked to the right. The street next to hers is Kenny Lane and that is Elder Whitehead's first name, so we decided we had to get a picture of it and tract on that street. The first door we knocked on I said that we were sharing a message about the Book of Mormon.The lady ended up telling us that she has a copy of the Book of Mormon and reads it regularly. She said she prefers reading it over the Bible. Apparently she met some Mormons or missionaries or someone a few months ago who gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon but never followed up on it. She has been reading it this whole time. We were super excited and came back a few days later to invite her to church and the ward Halloween party.

We had interviews with President King this week at district meeting. That was pretty good-- he's a great guy. Also, the Assistants to the President came and taught us a little bit and helped each of us out with meeting our companionship goals and whatnot. The North American Region has been asked to set the goal of one baptism per month per companionship. I believe we can do this and it is a good boost for us to help us fully do what we are called to do, Bring others unto Christ. It is a good reminder because it is so easy to just sit and chat with an investigator who you are good friends with and not help them progress and find greater light in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yikes. So, we're super pumped about that.

This week a couple families in the ward were moving around so we had a good time hanging out with the Bishop and moving furniture and heavy boxes and all that good stuff. Moving parties are fun. :)

It was the ward Primary program this week and it was soooo cute haha. One kid got up there and his teacher was whispering his lines and he misunderstood her so instead of saying, "God does live" he said, "God does sleep." It was hilarious and so cute.

It's raining right now and is forecasted to do so for the next three days. It has been a super nice and easy warm and humid-less October though.

Well I love you and pray that everyone is safe, healthy, and happy. Thanks for everything.

Love Elder Caplinnnnnn!

Up towards the North Carolina border...

Hiiiiii!!!

 

It's so weird how time goes by as a missionary. I CANNOT believe that my first transfer with Elder Whitehead is almost over (this is the last full week), and it feels like it's been SO LONG since I was home! Well, let it be known that I love you and miss you all. For real.

 

Well this past little while we have unfortunately or fortunately (I can't decide which) had quite a few contacts with anti-Mormon people. It is good because it makes you study really hard to know the gospel, but it is bad because they are so relentless and it hurts because they say that we aren't Christian. I have been doing lots of studying about Jesus Christ and the Godhead. I know that Jesus lives and that his mission was and is to be the Redeemer of mankind. I know that God loves us and that is why he sent his Son and the Holy Ghost to help us here on our mortal journeys.

 

I was on an exchange Monday through Wednesday with Elder Mastaler here in Cornelia. I love exchanges because I love watching how other missionaries work and teach. We visited a few new people that we met or somehow met us. It's interesting to run into people who knew previous missionaries haha. We ran into one lady this week and she said, "Hey! What happened to the other two??" It turns out that those missionaries had gone home forever ago hahah.

 

Elder Whitehead and I are thinking about making a comic about how we help old (er) people with their technology. This week we fixed a homebound member's dvd player so that he can listen to the BofM on CD, we got the audio files of the BofM on someone else's Kindle, and we put the triple combination book on another lady's Kindle to read haha.

 

The ward is doing really well with going out with the missionaries and taking us around. This week was awesome. We had someone with us almost everyday. In Preach My Gospel it says we should try to have a member present at every lesson. I didn't understand why at first, but now I know how important it is. Members help investigators feel at ease, and also when the missionaries get transferred the investigators will be able to have friends in the ward to help them along their gospel progression.

 

Also, Elder Whitehead and I did something that we think is super awesome. We made a marking chart where we can give each other gold stars for things we do that are good and demerits for things we do that are bad. It has become pretty funny. We nail each other for some pretty funny things.

 

A bunch of our progressing investigators stopped progressing, so that was kind of a bummer this week, but we are doing lots of good work with the Less Active/ Part Member families. There were a ton of less actives at church yesterday, which was awesome. Also, a lady that we have been working with was able to take the sacrament for the first time in over 20 years yesterday--we were very happy for her.

 

On Saturday a man from the ward who lives in Rabun County picked us up to go do work up towards the North Carolina border. Haha--It took over 5 hours for us to visit 5 people. Our ward is huge. But we love it.

 

Well, I love you so much. Thank you so much for all the support that you give me.

 

Be safe,

 

Elder Mikey T. Caplin

Make One New Friend a Day...

Hey! How y'all fellers doin??

 

Ummmm, so it's been a pretty good week. We were pretty busy visiting people and tracting and doing service and whatnot. We're still trying to work harder on helping our investigators progress in the gospel though. That's always what's on our minds. We haven't had anyone come to church in a while, which is disappointing because we always have like 4 people promise us that they'll come.

 

Good news... McDonald's monopoly started up again! Elder Whitehead and I are pretty excited about that. Also, it's great because we live right next door to a Baptist church and a McDonald's! I love monopoly. 

 

I made some salsa this week, haha, well I tried at least. Bruce gave us like a million peppers and some people from the ward had given us tomatoes and onions, so I mixed it all together. For breakfast one morning I made an omelet that was completley free of cost for me to make. Bruce gives us eggs from his chickens, and then I added stuff into it from people's gardens and whatnot. It was super awesome.

 

On Thursday we went to Habersham County Hospital to visit people in the nursing home. We made a new friend named Margaret. She liked us right away because she lived a whole bunch of her life in the west and we are from the west. We were chatting with her for a while and her nurse came up and Margaret asked the lady, "Do you think you could hook my new roommates up with some lunch today?" Haha-- it was funny--she's like 94 years old.

 

I want to try to meet at least one new friend a day. It's really important for us to just talk to tons of people out here because in all actuality not many people have heard of the LDS church or the Book of Mormon. So we're trying to spread the word.

 

Question: What should I be for Halloween? I was thinking maybe a nerdy missionary or a cowboy missionary... I'm excited for the ward halloween party that's coming up :)

 

On Thursday we knocked on a door and a lady about 60 years old answered the door and wasn't very excited to see us. Right off the bat she said that she was Baptist and didn't believe in "Mormon". We just tried to start a casual conversation with her to lighten the mood and it started working haha. We were talking about her grandchildren and all this good stuff when her husband pulled up. He saw our name tags and said, "Hello! How you guys doing?! It says Jesus Christ on your tag so you must be good!" Now we are on very good terms with the couple and they want to learn a little bit about our church. Haha-- it's funny though because when we first got there she looked like she wanted to spit on us or something. We've been back again to give them some stuff and talk. They like us so much and were so impressed to hear that we don't get paid or anything like that.

 

The ward has been really good about taking us out on "team ups" this month. That is when a guy from the ward takes us out to one of our lessons or just to do whatever. They are really helpful because it saves us from using monthly miles and because it makes us seem more normal hahahahaha. Anyway, that has been really exciting/helpful/awesome.

 

Well, love you long time, take it easy, y'all be safe now!

When she saw us coming, she started RUNNING...

Helloooooooo!!!!

 

Summer is gone...

FALL is here in the Cornelia area! It turned from warm, summer days to cool, breezy, crisp autumn days really quickly! The leaves have begun to change colors and fall a little bit, and I am getting excited. Fall is everyone's favorite season out here so I am glad to be able to enjoy it in the NE GA mountains. 

 

This weekend was crazy and fun for Elder Whitehead and me. It was General Conference (which was awesome) and it was the Cornelia Apple-town Festival, which we helped out with. We got up super early to help the city set up for that. It was fun. 

 

Missionary Service at Community Events: Cornelia Apple Festival

 

Cornelia is just a cute little southern town. There were vendors lining all the streets. I tried fried apple pie for the first time and IT IS SOOO GOOD! haha. We bought some from the grocery store afterwards to store in the freezer for whenever we are craving it in the future. 

 

The Conference talks were super great. Unfortunately, none of the people we are working with showed up :(. We had been inviting people like crazy to attend. Seeing Temple Square on the tv reminded me how much I love Utah. Utah rules. The west is the best.

I wish I would have known that you guys were going to conference because then I would have looked for you! That is so awesome. I'm so happy for you guys. Watching conference at a church in GA made me realize how much I love Utah. I didn't get homesick at all, but I just love Utah. The mountains are beautiful, and I love Temple Square. Some of the ward members out here save their money for yearsssss just so that they can go to SLC. So anyway, that's fun that you got to be there for all the hustle and bustle and got to eat at a buffet and spend the night in SLC!

 

Well, it was kind of a tough week this past week. Our investigator Jason dropped his baptismal date. He said we could still be friends and meet with him and stuff, but he said that he really thinks he doesn't want to get baptized into a different church. (He is a Baptist.) So we are praying hard and trying to help him work out any concerns that he might have. 

 

Elder Whitehead and I also decided that we need some more people to work with because our teaching pool is kinda low. We met with a guy who is going to a Baptist college. He wanted to talk to us about our church and the scriptures. He said he is writing a paper on the Mormon faith. That was very interesting. He was just asking tons of questions, jumping all over the place, using scriptures to try and tell us that the Book of Mormon contradicts our beliefs. 

 

We also met with a Jehovah's Witness this week. He talked to us about their beliefs. It is awesome to see what different people and different faiths emphasize on. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what can tie us all together, so it was a good time talking to all these different people. It really is crazy how many different people you meet as a missionary. We met an old lady yesterday. When she saw us coming, she started running up her driveway trying to escape from us by going inside her trailer haha. By the end of our ten-minute conversation, she said that she was very glad to have met us, and we felt glad about it as well even though she wouldn't listen to anything about the Restoration. :) It's fun just being out here and helping people out and talking to people.

 

Tomorrow we have a mini zone conference, which I am excited about. Today we are going to try to feed some ducks somewhere if we can find them because we were given some expired loaves of bread haha.

 

Life is good here in Cornelia. I really, really enjoyed conference. I can't wait till we get the messages printed in the Ensign. There is a lot to be learned from the mouths of the prophets.

 

Love,

 

Elder Caplin