Hey!

Hey vatos,

Yesterday was Family Day here in Canada. So the libraries were closed. But it is really sweet that they have a day like that here. Most people have the day off of work and they are encouraged to spend the day with their families. Only if everyday was like that. On my mission I have truly realized that the family is everything to God. Therefore it should be everything to us.

We have had some great expereinces this past week. I will share a few cool ones. We have been trying lately to split up our area into more managable "sectors". So we divided each ward up into about 4 sections. And we stay in the area already chosen for a couple of hours each day. Seeing who we can find and the people that we can serve in that little square. It helps us focus and talk to more people on the street. We haven't had a lot of time to try it out, but as we have tried it, it has really helped. One day we talked to this Muslim man for about an hour. The first thing that he told us was that "The mormons are the closest to Islam than other religion." We then talked about prophets and the beliefs that we share. We talked also about how they don't believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but rather just a prophet. It gave us an opportunity to bare testimony and it ended up with him wanting to read the Book of Mormon. It was interesting, because I actually felt sad for this man, because he doesn't have the benefit of believing in Jesus Christ. This belief gives me hope and assures me that I am on the right path. Interesting testimony builder.

We were talking to a inactive return missionary this week and the Spirit was so strong. We were able to talk to him and get him to open up. The Spirit guided us to invite him to pray, more than once. It was interesting how easy it was for him to change the subject when we asked him to pray. He finally faced his fear and allowed the Spirit to teach his heart. He prayed to his Father in Heaven for the first time in 8 years vocally. It showed me that we need to be that much more righteous becasue the Spirit works through us. We both sat back and watched the Lord touch this broken man's heart. I love this work. You know that.

We are now volunteering at a nursing home here close to were we live and it is so fun visiting with these aged souls. They make us laugh and we are happy to help. I love how service has become something that I look forward to. And a cool thing that we discoved was that the main lady we will be working with speaks Spanish. She is from Columbia and she has known missonaries before. I love how the Lord puts you in unexpected circumstances to bless his children.

I dont know if you have seen the Mormon message called Earthly Father, Eternal Father, but if not, watch it. We have been showing this to all the people we visit lately and it is amazing the Spirit that is brings. To help people understand the simple truth that we have a Father in heavan that loves us. It helps me press on in the hard moments, which are sometimes many. This simple truth has been confused and is misportrayed many times and it is so great to have a living prophet on the earth to show us this doctrine that gives us motivation to keep on living.

Elder Schubbert and I are staying together for at least one more transfer. I am so excited. He is so fun and such a great comp. We are moving apartments though. With the influx of missionaries, we are moving to the basement of a member that lives across the street from one of our stake centers. It will be good because we can walk over every morning and work out.

Luv ya all,

Mucho Amor
Elder Kipp

Boom!

Hey guys,

How is everything going? Sorry for no letter last week. We had a crazy day helping getting all the new missionarie's beds into the storage unit. But everything is going incredibly great up here in the great North speaking spanish. I hope everyone is safe and having a smiley day.

Since Martha and Eduardo joined the church in December and January we have been really trying to find new people to teach. We have been going to our faithful members and they have been helping us get to know their friends. As I have been on my mission I have realized that this is the best and most effective way to find those that are searching for the truth. The Lord places people around people that already have the complete truth so that they can get to know the gospel in a calm and friendly manner. Retention is so much better this way and the church expreiences "truth growth". I love seeing people's friends enter into a covenant because both "are edified". To see someone that you have seen change continue on the straight and narrow brings a peace to your life like no other. We got invited to a Tamale Party through Martha's friends and met a bunch of people from Mexico and one family was interested. We are going to meet with them later on this week and we are excited. We also got invited to a baby shower by another member who had the sole purpose of having us meet her friends and seeing if they would be interested in meeting with us. I love the reaction when Spanish people meet a couple of "gringos" that can speak spanish. Even though there aren't that many people that speak spanish we have something different to help us get in with them. We were able to meet a lot of her friends and we got some info and some return appointments. Missionary heaven.

We also have started to teach this guy named Jack. He is from El Salvador and we found him through a former investigator that thought he might be interested. We started talking to him and introduced him to the BOM. Something interesting happened. He was like "I don't read Spanish, I only read English". As Elder Schubbert and I looking at each other surprised, he explained that he never learned to read or write in his mother tongue and when he got to Canada he took the opportunity to learn how to read and write in English. So we are teaching him in Spanish and he is reading in English. I never cease to be amazed up here. We are still helping Manuel progress. He is going to go to Mexico so his progression might be halted a little or it could grow as he sees his family. He still needs to quit smoking and drinking, but his attitude has really changed. He has taught me that your desire and attitude to do whats right has to change before you will change the action, or by changing.   But he is doing great and he is learning a lot. He was supposed to get baptized at the end of February, but we probably will be moving that back a few weeks. I am excited to see if he has changed when he comes back.

Some words of personal opinion and council. If you have home teachers, please let them come over and do their job. We have a less active family that we are working with and their home teachers are trying to get in contact with them. The family told us that they don't want to bug anyone and be a burden for anyone. They don't want people to worry about them. That is what home teaching is for. Home teachers feel an obligation to help their families and they do worry about their families. But that is what they should do! So please help them do their job. I promise you will be blessed and they will as well. Let the program that the Lord made bless your life and those around you like it was designed to do.

I love this work and I feel that the charity in my soul has really grown. I know that that happened because I am serving others. Mucho amor!!

Elder Kipp