Hola Familia y Amigos

Hey guys,

So this week was good. We are enjoying significantly warmer weather. On Friday and Saturday we experienced about 20'C and it was amazing. So many more people are out to go and talk to. People seem to be more friendly.

We are doing something really cool within our ward. We are trying to work with the ward smarter and one way to do that is getting to know their friends. So we are inviting all the members to just have us in their home when they have nonmember and less active friends over. We are looking forward to just meeting more people in non threatening manners so that the Spirit can touch their hearts and they can begin to have questions. Its almost like the members are contacting for us. We are already seeing success from this. We met a lot of friends of the members we had dinner with and it was cool to see how they began to ask spiritual questions as they noticed that we are different than most people as missionaries. But also we are starting a thing in the ward called "Riddle Me Service". So we give a ward family a riddle and the answer is another familie's name. They have to do something to help them out and give them a riddle from us to pass on. We can already see that it is strengthening the ward and helping everyone to get to know us.

We also had a good experience yesterday. We walked out of our apartment and we met our neighbor Sung. He is from Korea and he is interested in getting to know us. We didn't talk to him too long but as we were walking out he followed us and asked us some more questions. I felt the Spirit as we were talking to him and I really feel that we can teach him. It is crazy to know that the Lord places people closer to you than you can imagine. Just by us asking him his name and getting to know him as a neighbor, sparked his interest and we are excited to see where it goes.

I challenge everyone this week to get to know one of their neighbors. Think outside the box and do something nice for them and share kindness. Service brings the Spirit faster than anything I know. The work is going great and I send my love,

Mucho Amor,

Elder Kipp

Attached: Epic photo of Elder Vega and I walking into the field to harvest!

Cool Experiences Run Our Lives

Hola Amigos,

So the snow is almost gone. It is really funny that I am saying that and we are almost to May. But it is all good. Red Deer is so beautiful during this time of the year. The river is starting to flow without ice and everything is starting to turn green. I am looking forward to sending more pictures of awesome Canadian summers.

Last week we got to have ZTM (Zone Training Meeting). All the zone leaders take the info from ZLC and share it with the zone. They are really good meetings, but this one was especially good. Our zone is the best. All the elders in our zone want to work and are doing it hard if you ask me. We are trying to focus on getting some of the key indicators up and reminding them that we are all growing. We were able to give two trainings. One on helping our investigators receive personal revelation. The other on knowing God's Vision for your area. I love being able to share some of the things I have learned with others and train them to be the missionary God knows they can be. Elder Vega and I had a blast and the Spirit was there to unite us a little more.

So it is really cool that I was able to come down here with two other Spanish Elders. We are seeing the Spanish work down here grow. Elder Vega and I don't have a day go by that we don't talk to a Spanish person. Really funny to be talking to someone and then they turn to Elder Vega and start talking to him in Spanish. He looks at me and has the look on his face, "Help me.." He is amazing. But really cool experience happened the other day. We were walking to contact an investigator and passing a lot of houses. We passed one house and the Spirit almost stood infront of me and stopped me. I looked over and said, "We need to knock on that door." Elder Vega said "That would be funny if they were Spanish." Turns out she was from Columbia and would have the Elders over. I don't think I have a clear spiritual expression like that in a while. But showed me that God knows who he wants to talk with us, we just have to listen. We also met a man from Mexico like two doors down in our building! Crazy ehh? He is really humble and I feel like he would be a great person to teach. I love the Latin people. I think God knows that.

We are teaching a young woman named Courtney. She is the friend of a member in our ward. She doesn't know much about God at all, so we are excited to be teaching her, because everything is new and she is interested. She has already been to church and loves the "different feeling that she gets" when she is there. We feel like she will be very accepting. It shows me that we really do have a bigger influence on people by the way we live because she regards her friend very highly. We are trying to stress the fact that she is a child of God. Going well.

They announced that the chapel that we meet in is going to receive an expansion. It will take about a year to complete starting in May. But it is just showing that the church in our area is growing. Also the mission is growing a lot. We are already receiving 18 and 19 year old missionaries. They say by the end of the year that our mission of 140 is going to grow to about 250. Most wards will have 2 sets of elders. What a blessing to see firsthand the affects of the changes in missioanry work. We are part of the stone that is cut out of the mountain. We are rolling forth steady and sure. President Campbell is going to be replaced in July so we are all sad to see him go. But he has done so much for me and my testimony of spreading the gospel.

More to come. Loving life.

Mucho Amor,

Elder Kipp

¡Hola Amigos!

Hola my fellow amigos!

My apologies for no update last week. You get busy as a zone leader. Its pretty crazy but such a blast. Having the chance to serve so many other missionaries is such an amazing experience. I am already running out of time, but I will send you a big letter next week. I send you my love and my hugs!!

Elder Kipp

Saludos de Red Deer

Hola amigos,

I am here in Red Deer College enjoying the beautiful weather. It has been above 7C the whole time that I have been here. Red Deer is a beautiful little city. It looks like it's in the mountains but has a flat plain look as well. We also cover an area about 15 minutes to the west called Sylvan Lake. It is such a cool little town and I can't wait to see the lake not frozen over. I know that I will love it here.

We got here on Wednesday and it was pretty hectic getting everything situated. We had to get a lot of people down here and it was a little hectic making everything fit for 3 people in two cars. But the drive isn't bad down here. I had to be in meetings most of the day, but it made me excited to be a Zone Leader. Elder Vega is the man. Our key phrase is "One Speaks it and One Looks it." All the members down here get a kick out of it. I am trying to teach him, so by the end he should be fluent. ja ja But It is nice because he is letting me pray still in Spanish so that I can keep it up. It is a big change just covering one ward, but being a zone leader and being in charge of a big zone makes up for it. I love being able to get to know all the Elders in the Zone and helping them achieve all they can in their individual areas. Its crazy how you become genuinely concerned for someone's well-being when you have stewardship over them. So I am really looking forward to going on all the exchanges and giving training, cause you really learn the most when you are training others.

I like the area that we have. Red Deer 2 ward. Pretty big ward with lots of faithful members. They are willing to help us out and someone already fixed my pants for me. Dinner every night is a change as well, I am going to have to work out harder... The work is good here, lots of less-active and lots of potential within the ward already with part-member families. We were able to go out on Saturday and get a lot of QGC's (quality gospel conversations- a key indicator) I love just getting out there and talking to people. An example of why happened yesterday. We had about an hour before our dinner appointment so we decided to change our plans and knock this complex. We met a woman named Mary Jean and she started to talk with us, very friendly. It took her about 10 minutes to ask us "So why are you guys on my front door?" We started to talk more about the gospel and she just broke down. She explained to us that she had just been through a lot the past two years and her faith was dwindling. It gave Elder Vega and I a great opportunity to testify of the Savior on Easter. It was probably the most powerful expression of the Spirit working through us that I have felt on my mission at a door. I began to tear up as I felt the Lord comforting this woman and the Spirit testifying that what we were saying was true. We gave her a BOM and highlighted some things that might comfort her soul and we are going to followup with her this week. It was an amazing experience.

There are some good investigators here as well. The most progressing probably is the Sarmiento family from the Philippines. They are really humble and ready to follow the Savior. We had a powerful lesson and they are on date for May 11. The Spirit really helped us work through that. Looking forward to see their progress.

Mucho Amor,
Elder Kipp