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