I am in CANADA!

Hola!

How has everyone been these past couple of days. I haven't been able to write because we did not have a Preparation Day until Monday. But yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving. So, we could not get time to get to the library to write. But Canada is beautiful. It truly is. We live downtown on the eleventh story of an apartment building. It is a very diverse city and there are many different cultures here. I love being in the middle of the city.

But the Missionary work is a lot different than I expected. There are only 4 Spanish missionaries in the city including me. The city is divided into 2 areas. Each area has two stakes. Both of our stakes have about 7 wards and/or branches in each of them. So you can imagine how big my area is. We have a car because we are moving around all the time. And what is special about our area is that it was just opened after being closed for about a year.

My trainer's name is Elder Erhenzeller. Most of the other missionaries call him Elder EZ because his name is kinda hard to pronounce. But he is great and really committed to the work. He is from Virginia and his Spanish is very good. he told me that it was kinda hard for him to continue to learn Spanish at the beginning because he was not thrown into it. But he knows that I will be able to learn it better if I just commit myself to learning it everyday. I feel like I will be able to retain it easier once I am off my mission because I still have to use English a lot of the time. But I know that we are going to do great things for the Spanish speakers of this area.

We haven't had that many lessons because it is hard when you open a new area. There used to be a Spanish branch about 8 years ago, but it was closed and there are a lot less active members. We are really working on finding people to teach as we go through our area books and meet people. I plan on working hard and at this point just being a support to Elder EZ as we preach. We are going through a new 12 week program for new missionaries. It is hard to get three hours of study in the morning but we need to do it. I feel like it really will help us in the end. I love getting my daily fill from the Book of Mormon. It gives me a burst of energy and I am learning so much. There is a lot of potential in this area.

I have to tell you a funny story. We were studying in our apartment one morning and being really quiet. We have a giant window in our apartment where we can see out to the city. All of a sudden a giant rope fell down and a man starts repelling from the the ceiling. He was washing the windows! He was smoking and had a very funny look on his face. But I had Elder EZ stand next to the window and I got a picture of them. I was wondering the whole time if he was going to fall.

One family that we have been seeing a lot is the Hernandez family. The father, Carlos, was baptized four months ago by Elder EZ and his wife was baptized about a year ago. They have two children and one is only 26 days old. I can feel his faith when we talk to him about his conversion and that his testimony has grown so much. He is from Mexico and spent a lot of time in New York. He used to be a gangster, but through the gospel of Jesus Christ, he has found true happiness. I have also met some of the members in various wards that speak Spanish. They have been wonderful. I have come to realize already that people really do notice us and they love talking with us. I am so ready for this new experience.

More great news to come. I love you all.

Tenga un buen dia!

Elder Kipp