The Fire of Baptism in their Eyes, Cats and Monkeys

Hey everyone!

It was great being able to talk to you on Christmas!  Even though you kept asking me what I want to do when I GET HOME and telling me NOT TO BE TRUNKY at the same time... haha! it was great.

So, I don't know why the cats here have such a fascination with coming over to our house, climbing on our roof, and fighting in the middle of the night. The leaves of the roof really amplify the sounds.  So, our branch president officially declared it hunting season for cats and started carrying around my slingshot and rocks in his pockets so he could be ready. Nothing yet, though. 

This week was pretty good for the work.  We are finding new investigators like crazy, mostly youth, but it is good because a lot of the youth left the island and moved to the city.  And the ones that stayed aren't very animated or excited right now, so we are hoping we can get a better youth program going here in the branch.

The Christmas baptism was awesome!  We had been waiting for a couple weeks, and had to postpone the baptism because R's family drinks coffee and he would drink it in the morning.  But, he finally was able to leave it behind.  It is so awesome to see the change in the lives of people when they accept and live the gospel.  Today, we were walking in the street with Shark and there were some kids who were kind of laughing at us, saying that we are weird for not drinking coffee, so Shark said that we should go talk with them.  Right as we started to talk to them about coffee, who shows up?  None other than R! We asked him why we don't drink coffee and he explained to them, and after that, they said they would read the pamphlet we gave to them.  Member missionary work is so awesome, especially when you have recent converts who still have the fire of baptism in their eyes! 

Tomorrow, we get to go on divisions to another island, with two of my favorite elders, Elder M and Elder M.  I love serving other missionaries and helping them to reach their potential, but I am pretty sure I learn way more from them than they do from me.  We are going to spend three days there so we can do quality divisions and get our money’s worth out of the boat rides.  It will be so fun!

I am truly blessed to be serving out here.  We get to see so many results of our labors, and harvest so many of the seeds we plant.  I am learning so many things that I never imagined that I would learn in my mission, most importantly, I am growing in my personal strength and testimony of the Gospel.  Thanks for all your love and support. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Austin Michael Kipp

P.S.  I saw a sweet monkey this week.  It has a mohawk, and they named it Kipp.  It is one of our investigator’s

pets.  I will send some pictures.