Kenny & Becky Kapp: "Hole"ier Than Thou

The second month after our arrival in Tonga (March 2017) she met Elder Cox who was just arriving from American Fork, Utah. He was so excited to be in Tonga and fresh out of the MTC ready to serve. On his second day here we started receiving calls from him due to blisters on his feet. We took him several different kinds of footwear over the next week but each of them cause him trouble. In fact, he had finally decided to go barefoot to avoid the blister and pain which cause him to burn the bottoms of his feet.

He never lost his great attitude but he did affectionately earn the title of "tenderfoot" from us. He did recover after a few grueling weeks. His wonderful work ethic and personality quickly made him one of our "favorites" and we have seen him off an on since then.

Elder Takapu and Elder Cox
What does a missionary with a hole in one shoe call himself?
iHop!!! (this may mean more as you read on).

What brought this story to mind was, we saw him on Monday of this week (just back from 'Eua) and Lepeka noticed his footwear. As you can see from the photo, his sandals were worn completely through. When we asked him about them he said they were just fine and that he didn't even think about it. We immediately gave him a new pair we had in exchange but it does illustrate the selfless attitude of the missionaries serving here. They just keep going in spite of many personal hardships rarely thinking of themselves.

Lepeka has an aversion to cutting the toe for ingrown toe-nails unless absolutely necessary. Any open sore can easily become infected in the bacteria rich environment (especially below the knee). She always has them soak their feet in a hot/warm water mixed with a 1/2 capful of Dettol (an antibacterial liquid soap) 2-3 times a day while working on the nail to free it. She has had really good success with that treatment and the missionary is almost always back going full bore in a day or two.

On Saturday, we visited an Elder who had been told to soak his foot twice a day on the previous Thursday to see how it was doing. When we got there, he was soaking it. Lapeka told him what she was going to do to free up the toenail. He wasn't very happy until she told him if she took him to the doctor to have the toenail removed, it would hurt a lot more just deadening the area. After she was done he was very happy he got to keep his toenail. Monday morning we went to check on him to see how he was doing and to see if there was anything else she needed to do. When we arrived, he said Sister Kapp, I really thought you were crazy when you told me soak my foot and use a fingernail file to release the nail. But I did what you said and last night it freed up and I was able to cut off the part that was causing the problem and now I am pain free. So I know, if Sister Kapp tells me to bathe in the River Jordan, I will bathe in the River Jordan. It was one of those cute moments and we all enjoyed a good natured laugh.

Then she decided to have a frank discussion with another Elder (name withheld) about his continuing minor health issues. He told her that he was doing everything that he was supposed to be doing and following all of the rules but that he still kept having all of these problems. He couldn't understand why he wasn't receiving the blessings (at least health wise) that are promised in the scriptures. She told him there is also a part about "after the trial of your faith".

They continued to talk about what he could possibly be doing that might cause some of his issues. Finally she asked him if he knew she loved him. He said he did. With that she talked about the possibility of being a little bit of a hypochondriac. He agreed that he did have that tendency. She told him that he only has 7 weeks until he goes home so for now, he needs to get up every morning and not focus on what is wrong but on what is right. She said Satan knows your weaknesses and will use them to keep you from accomplishing what you have left to do on your mission. He started laughing and said "Sister Kapp, you are going to be a prophet one day!" Lepeka is pretty sure that isn't going to happen, but it does go to show how the Holy Ghost helps her every day knowing what to do and what to say in situations that may need more than a Tylenol or a band-aid. We will keep a close eye on him just in case he really is sick (we never discount what they tell us) but so far he is doing much better.

On Thursday evening, we received a phone call from one of the Elders that was in town from Ha'apai for the Mission Leadership Council asking if we had plans for dinner and could possibly take 2 more. It seems that their fafanga family had not been told that there would be extra Elders that evening. Well for any of you that know Lepeka, she never turns anyone away so we started figuring out what we had that we could feed them. Shortly the first call we got a second one saying that maybe the office Elders didn't have fafanga that night either and could they come. Long story short, we ended up with 6 hungry Elders joining us for dinner that night. We had hamburgers, chips and salsa and ice-cream for dessert. They all seemed pretty happy about it and most had 2 burgers. Elder Btten said, "Sister Kapp, most women would not be too happy to get this many extra mouths to feed on such short notice but you seem to be really enjoying it". Yep, that's my Lepeka!

back row L-R, Elder Hurrell, Elder Mortensen, Elder Teutau, front row L-R, Elder Lomu, Elder Van Buren, Elder Betten

We they were finished eating, we asked them to sing a hymn for us (which we recorded and uploaded to YouTube). It is an impromptu version of Ofa Hoku 'Otuā (Nearer My God to Thee in Tongan). You may have already seen the video as I shared it on Facebook the night it was recorded but you can view it by clicking here (it's worth a listen).

Elder Betten wanted to add this short video clip as well.

On a lighter note, we are keeping up on current event in the U.S. (as much as time permits). You can only imagine the elation I felt when I learned that iHop (International House of Pancakes) was now going to be called iHob (International House of Burgers). Even though saying iHob sounds just like you have a cold I love the concept. I do offer my condolences to all of the pancake lovers that are up in arms over this. I am guessing that you can still have your pancakes there as well. I did come up with one idea that might possibly appease us all ...

International

House Of Pancakes, Steaks, Chicken, Omletes, Tacos, Cake, & Hamburgers

Photos from around the island ...

You choose the caption: When the school bus beaks down or ...
look at all those perfectly good young men they are throwing away.

Another bus that is easy to load and unload. We haven't seen this one before
but it was parked out front of Liahona on Saturday morning.

Since last falls Rugby success we see all kinds of vehicles that are painted
for the team or sporting the Mate ma'a Tonga sticker (Die for Tonga).

A couple Aussie military ships that were docked for about 3 days.
We tried to find out why they were here but to no avail. The ships
did look out of place.

Elder Lavaka and
Elder Chandler

Ready for bandaids.

Sores on the feet and ingrown toe-nails seemed to be the theme of the week. It's important to treat and cover any open wounds especially, below the knees as the missionaries walk through all kinds of bacteria laden fields and puddles.

More pigs ... these seemed to ignore us as we drove by. Most scamper to safety.

Some people really go all out on their cars with different lights and colorful paint
jobs. You can see many cars with flashing leds and various colored headlights