¡Feliz Navidad!

¿Cómo están todos?

We are having a wonderful time up here in Edmonton during the Christmas season. The mood around here is amazing.  I love how it changes during the holiday season. People are more open to talk to us and people say "Merry Christmas" as you are walking down the street. It has been moderately warm but we haven't had any snow lately. It is supposed to get really bad after the new year. Looking forward to that.

Christmas Conference on Wednesday was incredibly fun. President Campbell gave us some great training on how when we talk to people we need to genuinely be interested in them, not just talk to them to get a number. He talked about his father-in-law that would just talk to anyone and be friends with them within 5 minutes. It reminded me a lot of Papa and his amazing skill to just talk with people. I have been working on that skill for my whole mission and I still have a long way to go. But the talent show was a amazing. My boys did Noche de Luz on the guitar and the violin. Another sister in my zone (Sister Milburn) and I did a parady on "Baby, Its Cold Outside". It was about this district leader that was trying to get a sister in his district to stay on the phone during stewardship. It was a hit. I had to be sure that President knew that there was nothing implied.

We also had our 4 stake wide Latin Christmas dinner last night. We had about 100 people that were able to come and it was really successful. Marta and Mauricio were both able to come out and they had a blast. They are becoming really good friends. Recent converts are the best "fellowshippers". We had a small little spiritual message and songs in the chapel to begin and then the dinner that followed was incredible. I really love getting all the spanish people together to feel the unity that there should be in the city. Man, they really know how to throw a party. We were listening to a talk recently that talked about 2 conversions that one needs to go through to be converted to the church. Spiritual and the social. The missionaries are the spiritaul and the members of the ward are the social. I encourage us all to keep an eye out for those that are investigating the church and making them feel welcome into theire future ward family. There has to be both to get a quality conversion. Spanish people are great for this. That is why I love working with them so much.

Marta is loving coming to church now and she has been free of coffee since Wednesday!! It is so awesome to see the Atonement in action. She is going to be baptized on the 29th and she is so excited. We are going to be working this week to strengthen her testimony of the commandments and the Book of Mormon. Eduardo is making more friends at church and is workign to overcome his problems. I am sure the Lord is so proud of him and the changes that he is making. I love these two and can't wait to see them progress more. Vianney is back up in Edmonton and I can't believe that we are not calling him a recent convert anymore. Love that guy.

I hope that you all can feel the Christmas Spirit. If not, get it. Read Luke 2 and feel of the Savior's love for you. I love you and wish the best.

Mucho amor,

Elder Kipp

Hola Familia

Hey guys,

 

Not too cold today to be honest. It only about -2 Farenheit. So not bad at all. We are probably going to go play something outside today. It is crazy how much I have gotten used to the cold. I know that I would be so cold if it was this cold back when I was home. I am becoming more of a polar bear than before. he he

 

We had a great week as far as finding new people to teach. We found a guy named Hugo through a less-active. He is Jehovah's witness but is really willing to learn anything. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him and you should of seen him focused on the page. He is really wanting to read it and compare it to the Bible. The New World translation is a little hard to compare, but we will see where it goes. We also got in contact with a family that had had a lot of contact with missionaries before and one of our bishops referred them again to us. We are using English to get into the door, but they are willing to listen to anything we have to say and reading the scriptures. We are being blessed with people that really want to follow the Savior lately. Both Martha and Eduardo came to church and they loved it. Martha has been having a hard time giving up coffee, so we will probably have to push here date back. We know that she can do it and she does as well. It was really interesting what she said the other day. She said that this should not be this hard. "It's just coffee." She really feels ashamed but we keep assuring her that the Lord is so ready to help her. She is doing great.

 

Eduardo brought two of his kids to church. It was nice to see them there, especially because he said that it would be hard for him to get to church because of his job. He is really struggling with some personal things, but it is amazing to see how much the will of someone changes when they want to change, the right way. It reminds me of Mosiah 26:30. As often as we are willing to repent and change, the Lord is there to forgive us. He is so ready to change and teaching him the Plan of Salvation last night was such a great experience. He was telling us about the Atonement and the Fall because he has read so much of the Book of Mormon. His son Luiz sat in and he seems interested but you could tell that it was a little different for him. He is 15 and we just got really personal with him and let him know that it is different, but that he needs to recognize how he feels. Hopefully he keeps sitting in with us. Man, solid people make for solid conversions.

 

We are going to have Christmas Conference on Wednsday and I got asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for the talent show. It is going to be so much fun. I got some jokes picked out and hopefully I can keep the show lively. We also got news that the new elder coming out in January is from Peru. Native speaker baby!! Hopefully we will all get to be with him. It would help us out so much. The Christmas parties are really fun, especially when we get our people there. Our fridge is jampacked with leftovers. Booyah! But I am having so much fun in this Christmas season and hope that all can feel the love that comes during this time of year. May it last for all the next.

 

Mucho Amor,

 

Elder Kipp

The Snow is Here

¿Cómo están?

 

Oh man, it has been snowing a lot here lately. About everytime we go in somewhere to teach, the car will be covered with a blanket of snow when we come back out. I have to admit that everything does look very Christmasy and it is making me really looking forward to celebrating Christmas. President Campbell is really wanting us to focus on sharing the Christmas message in our proselyting. Mormon.org is a really good resource to use. Also, did you guys watch the Christmas Devitional of the First Presidency? It brought the Christmas spirit really strong.

 

We have been having a lot of success lately. We have two investigators that are on date to be baptized. The first is named Marta and she is from Mexico city up here learning english from on of the local universities. She is really prepared and is going to be baptized on the 22 of December. We invited her to be baptized and she prayed to find her answer. She called us back that night and told us that she had her answer, but that she wanted us to pray and find a part in the Book of Mormon to read to her that next day. We all said individual prayers and flipped open the Book of Mormon to a random part. We all came up with very personalized messages just for her and all of our scriptures applied to her situation and baptsim. It was really amazing to see the look on her face as we read our inspired scriptures. It is really amazing to me that we can be the messengers for God when people are making life-changing decisions. We taught her the Word of Wisdom yesterday and her only hang up was coffee. She simply said, "Well, I guess I got to change now." Nice!! But The other guy on date is named Eduardo. He will be baptized in January and he is really prepared. He has already read 1 Nephi and it's only been like 2 weeks. He was even a little apologetic when we met with him. We are looking forward to great things with him.

 

One good thing about covering two stakes is that you can go to all the Christmas parties!! Ha ha but it really is great to bring out our investigators and less-actives out to feel the Christmas Spirit. We are going to have a city wide Spanish Christmas Activity in a few weeks. If it is as successful as the last one, than it will be a hit. I love Christmas time as well, because all the Spanish people start making their favorite Spanish dishes. Especially tamales. They are so good! We are going to learn how to make them here soon. So ready to learn how to make these things from heaven. I recommend you find a Spanish person and have them make them for you!!

 

Mucho Amor,

 

Elder Kipp