HALFWAY MARK and the Panama Earthquake

Hola Familia!

This last week has been interesting.  President gave us a few things to do in the office, and we spent a lot of late nights and early mornings getting it done.  We had a new missionary couple form St .George come on Saturday.  They are the new mission doctors. It will be nice, because I kind of took on the responsibility when the mission nurse left a change ago. They are super cool!  And we never felt the 6.8 earthquake in Panama last week because it was at 1:30 a.m. and we were sound asleep.

We have been trying to use our time a lot better, and try wasting less time in the office. We are trying to get out to our area more.  Although we are called to be the secretaries, our first call is to be regular missionaries.  It is hard to set appointments because we don't know always what we will have to do in the office and when we get out, but we are trying to get more appointments set, and find more investigators to teach.  We had a lady call the mission office this week, saying that she is basically a member and the missionaries visited her for a while.  She said she has taught about the church to people and told them to come, but she has never been baptized, and she is going blind so it is hard for her to get to church.  We are going to talk to her tomorrow, and it will be a sure baptism!

The rainy season has officially started here!  We had a tempest strike yesterday during church, so someone drove us to lunch, and we didn't get out for about three hours!  At that time, we start our weekly plan, then go to dinner, so yesterday we didn't get much done.  We did get to teach C in church, so that was good!  We are still in the process of getting him married, so we will see what happens this week with that process.  We have had a lot of investigators not progress that we have had to drop this week, so it has been hard.  But we are trying to open our mouths more and talk to everyone about the gospel!

It is crazy that I have already been out for a year! I feel like I just started a couple of months ago.  Now I am going downhill!  There are a lot of things I want to accomplish in this next year. They always say the second year goes by faster than the first, so I better get working hard!  I actually haven't burnt my shirt quite yet.  We went to a little food truck for dinner right outside our house that night with the Zone Leaders, the AP's and a missionary who went home in October but just got back last Thursday.  They make bomb cheeseburgers and arepas!

Glad to hear that the diets are going so well!  Way to keep true. It sounds like you are both having great success!  I am trying to form a diet with Elder H as well. That guy is a health NUT! He loves working out and he is huge and he is obsessed with eating healthy!  So we will see how it goes!

Well, not much to report this week.. We are going to the Cinta Costera today to rent longboards and bikes with the zone, so we gotta get going!  I love you all!

Elder Austin Michael Kipp

Setting Goals and It's All Normal Now

Hey everybody!

It was great to be able to talk to you all yesterday!  I was really excited that Sydney and Dallas were there as well, because I didn't get to talk to them at Christmas!  I was looking forward to Riley's dinosaur surprise, but I guess I will just have to wait a couple more months for that one.

Everyone looks great, and you all sounded so happy!

Well, I am trying to think of things that have happened that I didn't tell you guys about.  After being in Panama for a year, things that were weird or different when I came are now normal!

Last night, my awesome companion and I had a great weekly planning session.  We have been struggling a bit with getting planning and studying done.  We are really busy, but we are trying to not use that as an excuse.  We had some great divisions with our Zone Leaders this last week, and I learned a lot about planning and preparing for those we teach.  Last night, we set ourselves some challenging but reachable goals for the week, and we are trying to get everything done in the office so we can do it.  We have the potential to do great things, but we haven't been living up to our full potential as of late.  We are always trying to set a goal to improve in something. 

Today, we went to help a gringo family move.  They live in the sister’s area in Cardenas, and they are moving out to Boquete.  It is known as the paradise of Panama.  It is up in the mountains, and the weather is nice and cool up there.  It was good to be able to give some service.

Well, not much more to report on for today.  Just want to wish mom a very Happy Mother's day! I am so thankful for you, mom, and everything you have done for me in my life.  You are the best mom a kid could ask for! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Austin Michael Kipp

P.S.  Practice your Spanish everyone!  You're all en Panga! haha! 

Paper Airplanes, Balboa and "I'm Goin Down!"

Hi everyone!

So, this last week has been pretty normal, but, there was a pretty funny experience we had last Tuesday!  We went to the hospital to give blood, because a branch president from Darien was sick and needed blood.  So the AP's picked us up and told me that I was going to give the blood.  I wasn't nervous because I have had plenty of experience donating plasma, so I am pretty much a boss at this now.  My companion the whole time was saying it sucked that I had to give blood and that he didn't want to give blood because he doesn't like needles and all that jazz.  But when we got to the hospital, they said they needed two people to donate, so my companion got volunteered. 

We get in there, and they stick him first.  We were snapping pictures on the assistant’s iPhone because it was the first time we had both given blood.  They stuck him first, then me.  Everything was going well, and my companion said he started to feel a bit sick.  He called the doctor over because his bag was full, and he wanted to get off the machine.  After they cut the tube, he got super sick, and he started to pass out.   I looked over and asked if he was alright, and he was trying to keep his head up and he kept saying, "I'm goin’ out man, I'M GOIN’ DOWN!"  I was laughing, and he had the iPhone so we couldn't take any pictures.  They gave him ammonia to smell that woke him up, and he was fine but he just had to sit there for a while.  He didn't actually pass out completely, just like halfway, but it was super funny!

We did divisions this week with the other Elders from our district, and I went to their area, Balboa.  It is one of the poorer areas in the mission, but I like those areas because the humble people live there.  We gave a blessing to a lady who is going through problems with nerve damage in her brain, and it is affecting her desire to continue on with life.  It was powerful. We contacted some really strong members of another faith, and they got into a heated conversation with us in the middle of the street about baptism and told us that we couldn't know the truth because we are so young, but they have been studying the bible for forty years.  We bore our testimonies that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and respectfully and directly invited them to "keep studying", then left them there and walked away.  The spirit was strong and I don't know how they were able to deny us like they did.  I listened to the Book of Mormon talk by Jeffrey R Holland, when he says that he wants it to be clear, that when he is at the judgment bar, he testified to the world that the Book of Mormon was true.  I feel like that when I testify to people of the Gospel and they don't accept it.  Elder Price always used to look up at the sky and wave when someone would reject us, and he said he did it so at judgment day, he could show that video of him waving outside their house to let them know he gave them the opportunity to accept the gospel.

Today for Pday, we went with the entire zone to a family’s house in the Zone Leader's area.  They bought us pizza, and then we went out to a park with a basketball and futbol court, and played for a couple hours.  All the gringos played basketball, so it was fun to play a good game with people who know the rules and know how to play.  It started to rain pretty hard, so we stopped after a couple of hours, but it was good to get out.  Since I have been in the office, not many p days have been spent outside the office!

We have found the new entertainment of throwing paper airplanes off the roof and seeing how long they stay in the air and how long they travel.  We usually write little messages on them like, "be happy, be Mormon!" and write the mormon.org reference.  How cool would that be if someone got to know the church through one of our paper airplanes?

So, this Sunday, we will be able to Skype.  I am thinking I will call about six my time, so that would be about four your time! Let me know if another time works good.  We will be here for a while because my companion is going to call earlier in the day I think.  Well, not much more to report on... I love you all!

Love,

Elder Austin Michael Kipp

Colon Jungle, Contacts and Baptisms

Hey family!

This last week has been a good one, the end of the month is always busy for my companion.  He is the financial secretary and he has to pay all the bills by the end of the month, so a lot of time is spent in the office.

This last week, we really tried to get family home evenings going in the member’s homes.  One of the main focuses of our mission right now is trying to work harder with the members, and get them excited so they will start doing the missionary work as well.  It has been a little bit of a struggle trying to involve members here, but it has been a great learning experience for us and the members as well.  We were talking to President Carmack yesterday, and he said there are about 3.6 million people in Panama, and about 10,000 active members, and 40,000 less actives.  He said that if we could get 20,000 members to contact 175 people, we could have the entire country contacted in a year and a half.  One of the hardest things for me is opening my mouth and talking to everyone, but my companion and I have set a goal of trying to talk to everybody we can about the gospel, whether it be taxi drivers, people on the bus, or people in the street.  It not only helps them have the opportunity to receive the gospel, but our testimonies are growing as we are sharing them more.

Yesterday, I got to see Colon for the first time.  I had always wanted to go, and President called us after lunch to have us go with him to pick up a sister who was being transferred areas, and he couldn't go alone.  It rained really hard, and Colon is the most jungle area of Panama, so it was really cool!  It reminded me a lot of Ciudad Bolivar!

After we got back from Colon, we met up with C, and we took him to the temple.  Every Sunday, President does temple tours for missionaries who want to bring investigators.  We are working on getting C married, and so we thought it would be perfect to take him to the temple.  I learned a lot of new things as well, as President explained the significance of different things of the temple, and C had a great time.  We are getting the papers ready this Sunday for them to get married, then we should be getting them baptized within the next few weeks!

We also found a reference this week that we had been trying to find for a while.  His name is A and he lives basically right next to us!  He went to church a couple times in another ward, and he loved it!  We taught him the restoration and he accepted to be baptized on the tenth of May.  We might be able to baptize him sooner if we can get all of the lessons taught to him! 

Well, not much more to report on…have had a good week, and I am excited to see the effects of the hard work we have been putting in!  I love you all so much! Tell all the family in Washington Hi and that I love them!

Love,

Elder Austin Michael Kipp 

Panama Viejo and Cerrro Ancon

Feliz dia de Pascua!   That means Happy Easter!

This last week was busy!  We had a ton of things to do for transfers last Wednesday, like make the transfers video, sort all the mail, get the oldies sent back home, and get the new missionaries and train them on all the basic mission functions!  It was almost painful to hear some of them speak Spanish, and realize that I spoke like that about ten months ago! Haha!  The gift of tongues is real!!!  That last week consisted of three almost-sleepless nights, so it was good to finally be able to get some sleep that last few days!

The work was good the last few days!  We are trying to get more involved with the members of the ward, since I saw so many miracles in David that came from working with the members.  We have put two new dates for baptism with some investigators that we found contacting, and they accepted!  If we can get them and the other two married, we will have four baptisms coming up soon! Now, we just have to get all the legal issues worked out! C is still strong.   He is one of the ones that needs to get married.  We are planning on taking him to the temple this Sunday.  President does tours of the temple grounds every Sunday, and teaches a mini lesson about the temple.

My areas has Panama Viejo in it, so yesterday, as we were waiting for a member to meet up with us, we started walking through, and seeing all the old ruins.  It is incredible to see that these buildings have stood for over hundreds of years!  At the time it was built, it was one of the biggest ports in all of Central and South America, and it was the biggest cathedral around.  I love serving in a country with so much culture and cool cultural sites! 

That is so crazy that J leaves next week!  I am excited for him! I have a couple friends here from his mission, and they say it gets really cold there, because it is in the mountains. And when does T leave again?  I am excited for both of them to learn Spanish, so we can all be mutilingual bosses! There is a kid from our ward here, his name is I, and he got his mission call to St George!  He already speaks English, he lived in England playing semi-professional soccer on a minor league team for the Champions League team Chelsea.  He leaves August 5th, and I kind of want to visit him when I get home from my mission!

Well, there is not much more to report on this week.   It was a great Easter, reflecting more on the atonement and how to apply it in my life more than I ever have before.  We are going to Cerrro Ancon, a big mountain, to hike in the rain for P-Day! The first rainstorm of the season just came in!  I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Austin Michael Kipp

Harvesting Seeds

Buenos Dias Familia, 

It has been a pretty normal week in the office.  The highlight of the week was getting the birthday package and getting beef jerky.  I am lucky that I am the mail guy.  They aren't supposed to let any type of food pass.  When I go to pick up the packages, I have to open every single one and review them with the mail lady, but luckily she loves us so she lets basically everything pass, unless it is just a ridiculous amount of food.  And, if she does confiscate it, she usually lets us eat it right there so she doesn't have to throw it away!  We call her tía (Aunt) and she seriously reminds me so much of Aunt Ashley and Kristie!

So, C is progressing so well!  We taught him yesterday in Gospel Principles about the scriptures.  He told us a really awesome story!  He said that he went to a restaurant, and he saw one of his friends there, and she saw his Book of Mormon that he carries with him, and asked him if he was a Mormon now.  C then told us about what was said in conference, about calling the church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and not by other names.  So, he looked at his friend, and said, "I am not a Mormon.  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." and he then bore his testimony to her about the book of Mormon! He is basically already a member!  We just can’t baptize him until he gets married, so we are just finding out all that we need to do with his paperwork before we can baptize him.  He reminds me a ton of A, my convert from Cuidad Bolivar, in his excitement about the gospel and his love of the Book of Mormon.  We should be having a baptism in the next couple of weeks!

Speaking of baptisms, I talked with one of the sister missionaries who I shared an area with in David.  She said that K (my convert's) daughter was baptized, also her niece that Elder C and I were teaching.  Also, the daughter of Hermano J that got baptized on my last day in David got baptized!  I felt so happy when she told me that, to realize that all those seeds I planted in David were finally being harvested!  It was a special manifestation to me that the work and efforts we do, even if we do not see the results, are not in vain.  Every effort we put forth in the service of God brings blessings. 

I saw one of my favorite Mormon messages a couple weeks ago, a message given by Jeffrey R. Holland about when he was a young, struggling father. He gave a powerful quote about staying true to the gospel in hard times. He said, "You don't quit. You keep walking. You keep trying.  There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come till Heaven.  But for those who accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God, and believe in good things to come."  I have seen countless times in my life, that people think the gospel should make their lives problem free. That isn't the case.  God gave us the gospel to help us know how to be able to support our problems and trials, and to learn and grow from them. A leader for world MTC's was in Mexico, and he told us that there are  7,000,000,000 people in the world, with 7,000,000,000 different needs and problems.  And there is one gospel.  He said our purpose as missionaries is to help all those people find out how to be able to use the gospel to meet their needs and solve their problems. I have learned, and am still learning, how to truly apply the atonement in my life, and how to help others correctly apply it, and there is no greater joy in life than helping someone become clean of their sins.

Well, this week hasn't been too eventful.  I did finally get out and do some real teaching yesterday, so that was great!  I am feeling good, and am ready to get out and bautizar!!!

I love you all so much! There should be a few letters coming in the mail!

Love,

Elder Austin Michael Kipp

Elder Egg Head's Panamanian Birthday

Hey everyone!

So, this weekend was great, because we got to watch conference!  I was super excited, because I enjoyed last conference so much!  I was actually really surprised that they didn't announce any new temples!  It is hard to pick a favorite talk.  I found a common theme of courage and standing up for what is right.  If I had to pick one talk, it would probably be the talk given by Elder Nelson. He talked about how we can tie ourselves back to Christ. It was cool because I had listened to a talk by President Hinckley a couple days before about seeking the kingdom of God, and I was praying to know how I would better be able to do that. His talk was an answer to that prayer. Lots of talks were an answer to that prayer. I also enjoyed President Packer's talk. One thing he said really struck me. He said that Heavenly Father CHOSE to be called by the title of "father". I think that is because he wanted us to know where we could turn to peace in time of trial. He could have chosen another title, but he chose to be called father, so we would know that He loves us. I had never heard that before, and it interested me.

President Carmack invited the office elders and the assistants over to his house for the afternoon session on Sunday, and Hermana Carmack made us a typical Sunday roast beef and potatoes with homemade bread for lunch and tres leches cake for dessert!  President took us up to the roof of their building to see the swimming pool, and then their daughter played cello for us.  Apparently she was the best cello player for her level in the US?!?!?  It is a great experience to get to spend time with President and learn from him.

So, the first birthday in the mission was good!  I actually forgot it was by birthday.  Elder O and I had to go to a store to pick something up (I know, on Sunday... L) but I saw a box of toaster strudel and remembered it was my birthday!  We went to conference in the chapel next to the temple, and the sisters from my district bought me a tie, and gave me firecrackers for my birthday!  I guess some of my crazy pre-mission pyrotechnic stories have spread around the mission... haha! 

The best birthday memory came at about two o clock last night, when the Assistants, Elder P and his companion, and the two other office elders came into the house, started making a ton of noise to wake us up, then started singing happy birthday. So, I wake up and walk out to see what is going on, and before I could even get a grip on things, they smashed a bazillion eggs over my head, caked me in a ton of flour, and took a million pictures!  I think I was too tired to be angry, so we just laughed about it, and then I made them clean it up while I showered. Luckily we have hot water to melt all the goop off my head!  It is a mission tradition, and Elder O is next! haha !

That is crazy that the Mariners are in first place!  I have been able to look up some of the scores here and they are doing really well!  Good to hear that Utah is still well represented on the soccer scene as well!  The two most famous teams in the world are Real Madrid, and Barcelona, and everyone always asks me who my favorite is, so of course I say Real..... SALT LAKE! 

Well, there is not much more to report. I loved this last weekend!  And this is my last week of recovery (hopefully) before I can start walking like normal again!  I am excited to get out and work!  C told the other elders yesterday that he will get baptized, he just wants to and needs to get married first!  So, we should have a baptism in the next couple of weeks!

Well, I love you all so much! Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Love,

Elder Austin Michael Kipp