New Mission Address for Kyle

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Ames 12/29/11

So sorry that im emailing a few days late this week. we wernt able to find time to email.

I dont have a whole lot to say this week becasue i just talked to you on sunday, which was super fun :D i love it how pretty much nothing has changed.

Ill send some pictures with this one as well becasue i havent sent some for a while.

Love you all lots!

have a good week,

Transfer calls on Sunday =S crazy stuff,

A sweet hawk that we saw

Tucson in the background

Elder Ettinger with a mini donkey - not the one that lives on the same property as he does

Javalina eating a punpkin

Merry Christmas!

Ames 12/19/11

So this week has been a great week.
Our new investigator that we got came to church with us this week and
said it was exactly what she needed to hear :D so that was great. Im
thinking that it may take some time for her to accept the church but i
know that she will. love the work.
So we were tracting yesterday and we ran into this thug guy and it was
elder staleys turn to do the approch, and he just like froze and didnt
know what to say. and i was planning on leaving him out to dry because
i havent done it yet and he needs to learn that im not going to always
step in. but the spirit told me to open my mouth and i did. and the
words just flowed! it turned into a great contact and we left him with
a pampflet. I dont know if it will turn into anything but it was super
spiritual for me so what the heck.
Cant wait to talk to you all on sunday! so i think the final plan is
kyle and i chatting for a bit and then we will call you guys right
after you get out of church at 230. sound good? and my phone has the
ability to three way call so it should be easy enough. im not sure if
im going to be at a members or not. but regardless you will be hearing
from us :D.
So i kinda epic failed at gifts this year, i didnt really get anyone
anything... im sorry. but its like kyle said. we dont have any time as
missionaries. if anyone wants anything spesific from arizona let me
know and i will get it for sure.
Love you all so much!
ill talk to you more on SUNDAY!!!!
boo-ya!
Elder Ettinger

Kyle - One Week 'til Christmas

Dear familia,

I was emergency transfered the other day, and got put in a spanish area! I'm so freaking nervous!! and have no idea what i'm going to do!! My new companion doesn't speak hardly any english! and i feel like i'm gonna just die!....

Ha! i'm totally kidding! that would really suck if that happened. The reason i have such a joking sense of humor, is because this last week we've started some companionship rivalries if you will... three companionships, including myself, have been pulling pranks on each other, (No worries i've been givin permission each time i prank one of them). The first prank i've done, was pouring 14 cubic feet of packing peanuts into a sister missionaries Bathtub, and all over their room. it was awesome! because one of them is super careful about a clean room ha!! i'll keep you updated on the jokes and what not.

We were able to get a really solid potential investigator, he said he believes almost everything that we do, except for the 3 kingdoms of glory. we're gonna be able to teach him next weekend. but for now i was able to give him a plan of salvation pamphlet. and told him to study it, and we'll talk about it in our appointment.

We had a ward christmas dinner two nights ago, where i was able to sit on santas lap! and i wished for a call home to my family ha! it was really funny. We also had our stake choir concert last night, which went really well!! I love being able to listen to the songs and feeling back at home being in kim nelsons choir. Speaking of. i thought kim stopped the choir? since he was released as the chorister in church??

Christmas is so close by! i cant believe its only one week away. We have our members set up to let us come over and call home. We'll be able to call around 1 o clock, since our church is only doing sacrament meeting on christmas. Which lands it at 2 o clock at home right? Ames and i will probably call each other on our mission phones first, exchange numbers for the members phones, call again, chat for a  little while, and then try the conference call to dads phone. i'm pretty sure we'll be able to get it to work. I'm super excited to talk to you guys! but kinda nervous at the same time! i wonder if anyones voice has changed ha.

Mom, i enjoyed your idea about the service. We're lined up to go help the salvation army on the 21st, so i'll be able to get something sent with your favorite candy, but it may come on the monday after christmas.

Also, i'm gonna give migule my letter and present to maren, and he's gonna drop it off to you guys on his way up to salt lake. I apologize for slacking on the presents this year. Being a missionary, its tough to be able to actually get out and shop and try to get things everyone likes. Sorry!! 

I hope everyone has a really good week! and stays safe this christmas season!!

Don't forget to go buy some hot chocolate from the sevy family ha! :)

Love you all! Can't wait to talk next week!

merry christmas!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Packing peanuts in large quantities

Ames 12/12/11 Tis the Season

Man the Christmas season is sure comming up fast. and its alot diffrent out here in the field rather than being home. I have noticed that i want to do alot more for the people around me and im worrying alot less about what i want and all that junk. So its really fun. So this last week, as always, had its ups and downs. We found a new investigator! and she really wants to know how our church can bless her life and also the lives of her kids. So that was way way awesome. But we were also dropped by two of our gators as well. they told us that they were going to go with an online church... what the heck is that... ha i even asked him, "So how does and online church even work?" and he was like "They film the sermons and then post them up online"... What?? that isnt church... it pretty much is a scam for money im sure. way lame.

Glad to hear about marens interview!! thats so freaking legit! when will you be interviewing? AAAAA i so stoked for you!

 Calls: we can call anytime during the day. and we can talk for about an hour. What kyle and i have been talking about doing is calling each other and then three way calling over to you guys. does that sound ok? Im thinking that we should call sometime in the afternoon. like early afternoon. about 2ish? it also depends on when everyone gets out of church. ill be done at 10 so ill be gold after that. We also must take into count that kyle is an hour earlier than us right? so like if it was 2 here it would be 1 there? something to remember

Christmas cookies! well i think the best would easily have to be almond roca.. Plus we cant catch the "Fish" with out it :D

 The decorations look good. We decorated our trailor this last week :D we only had one strand of tree lights, but it works! we will be taking some christmas card photos today, so we will be sending them our hopfully soon :D

Hope we are all looking for ways to serve others this christmas season.

Love you all!

Elder Ettinger

 

One more with the WWII Jeep

Kyle 12/12/11

Hey there Family,

I cant believe we're already going into week 4 of this transfer! this is by far the fastest december ever! i remember it would drag on so slow during the christmas season back at home. But its gone by quick for me.

This past week we had whats called a "Ward Tract" where we dedicated an hour and a half to tracting with the ward. We had about 3 families show up, and like 5 single sisters, and about 5 SETS of missionaries. So we were able to get so much done with all of the participation that showed up. It was a really good time! and lots of the members have been really motivated to do more missionary work.

Thats crazy that Jordan is home now, i'll bet kim nelson is pretty excited about that! Time sure flies when you just get to work and don't waste the lords time. Ty patterson will really enjoy his mission! its like the coolest thing ever!

I haven't found out exactly when we'll be able to call home on christmas, ive been told that we can call whenever we want to during the day. But i'll find out more on that since its coming up really quick!! And yes, ames and i will be able to call each other, we've both received permission from our mission presidents.

The snowmen on the front porch look pretty awesome! good job mom! 

Being district leader has really taught me to be a better example to the other people around me. Our mission has been told by elder packer, that we need to be more unified, and more charitable to each other as missionaries. So the zone leaders and District leaders have taken the committment to keep pennies in our shoes at all times, so everytime we feel the penny, we're suppose to remember to be charitable. i thought it was a really cool idea. I'll be able to commit the rest of my district to do the same thing this next tuesday.

Its been a good week! and i'm looking forward to the next week to come!

I love you all!

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger

Weekly letter - December 5, 2011

Hey Family,

This week has flown by like nothing, which is crazy because i've been sick this whole week and it has been so lame!

i'll just give you the few highlights on the week. First off, we were able to teach a lesson to our investigator ___ this past tuesday. We taught her the doctrine of Christ, using chapter 31 of 2 Nephi. it went really well, but she wasn't super receptive of the message we were sharing with her.

The second thing, we were able to help 2 people move this past saturday, one was a move out, and one was a move in. And its always fun to do the moves. Because it seems like i've done a hundred moves, and i'm just pro at them now. So i always look forward to em.

The best thing of the week was a baptism, which took place this last saturday Dec 3rd. i'm hoping you were able to get the pictures that his mom and myself sent to you. 

Being district leader is becoming a bigger responsibility in our mission. President Godwin is wanting the leaders of the mission to be more accountable for things. Its really fun being able to call my district on sunday nights and get there number for the week, and to see how there companionship is going. I have my second district meeting this tuesday, which i'm hoping will go real well.

Thanks for the japan goodies, those fish almond things made me gag big time!! sorry i had to throw them out! Everything else has been pretty good. I also got the postcard. I keep all of the postcards in a seperate pile compared to my other letters. 

The mission sure is going quick for me. It seems like i just got here last month! Now we're approaching 7 months! isn't that crazy?

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

p.s.. Mom i'll be working on trying to find some cool ways to do some extra service. thanks for the good idea.

Weekly - Ames December 5, 2011

So yet another week gone by in the feild of missionary work! Flippin nuts thats for sure. This week definatly had its ups and downs. First i will tell you about the downs then the ups. So my companion and i hiked up to the top of this mountain, at night, and got some super sweet shots of the lights of Tucson, super super cool. Well when we got back home we were doing some long shutter speed shots and i was just using the arm of the couch as a tri pod. Well my camera fell off and the lens wont focus at all... Gay... Sooo naturaly i took my camera appart to see what i could do. I found that the entire camera works just fine. but there was one tiny tiny piece in the lens that was broken... So what do you do? Well instead of buying an entire new camera i just wanted to order a new lens. Well apparently you cant but ANY parts ANYWHERE online... So frustrating. So I just bought a Refurbished one off of ebay that passes all of the manufactures inspections for a new one coming off the line but it was only 120 bucks instead of 200. So yea. that wasnt super fun but im willing to spend the money to document my mission. Now some good news :D Well first of all this week was pretty slow. We dropped a total of 6 investigators this week. and boy did we need it! we had a pretty stagnant "Teaching Pool". so we cleaned up shop a bit and now we are focusing a TON on finding. so our numbers plumited but the coming weeks we should be able to see some improvement. Which is good :D. So now for the good news. haha. We were eatting dinner last night at a less active member families that is comming back to church. and they shared with us their goals to be sealed in the temple :D :D :D :D i was so excited! i love the temple so much and shared brief Testimony of it. anywho. Highlight of my week. for sure. Unfortunatly that was about all that happend this week.

I enjoyed the ideas of serving others. I love service so much. Im glad mom and dad raised us kids to serve others and also how to work hard. There are alot of lazy people in the world when it comes to just helping out for nothing, but im not one of them :D and no one in the fam is either :D.

So now for your questions:

 yes got the packages. thanks. also got the postcard. really cool (Love photography)

 Training is going well. With the new missionary training program that the church came out with just as kyle and i got out here makes it super easy to train the missionaries. so its going well. He is a really quiet kid so the mission is helping him out alot on that part. So its way good. We have had some pretty awkward door contacts though tracting :D haha but thats the best way to learn how to swim right. just chuck em' in?

love the work!

Love you all!

Elder Ettinger

ps. Dad were you ever a DL,ZL, or AP?

Sweet WWII jeep

6 month tie burning

Ames 11/28/11

I know i pretty much say it every email, but time just flippin flies by! This week, like kyles was a pretty slow week. With thanksgiving and taking over the area from elder turnbull and wrapping my head around this training a new missionary idea. Crazy stuff thats for sure. We were only able to teach about 4 lessons this week, so that was lame. But we had some fun stuff happen. Saturday night we were asked to give a little talk in Primary, man i love the little kids! they are so fun. I miss my little primary class. Also, Saturday night we were asked to do a youth fireside the next day! the decons quorm president forgot to get someone to speak at the fireside! (Dad dont let this happen) So they asked us missionaries to do it. Luckly for me i still had my notes from when elder Sims and i did that fireside back in thatcher. so we pretty much just mirrored that one. It was SO much fun! We talked for about an hour, and it was so easy. Im loving how i can just stand up infront of people and not be nervous at all. Also this week, we tracted into a pastor  and he was really nice, he explained how he didnt want to argue about religion but he was more than happy to "Have us over and show us what the bilble really says" haha. he gave us some buisness card and his cell number. I felt really prompted to tract that street that day and he was the only person that showed us any intrest. So maybe we are supposed to go back and talk to him sometime? we will see.

 So dad asked how senior comp is going. Its going good, im kinda realizing though that once you "Go" senior comp you stay senior comp. So im pretty sure i will be here the rest of my mission. which is a bummer at times because you have alot less responsibility when you are Junior Comp. But obviously im supposed to learn how to be a leader and all that. So im not too worried about it.

 My thanksgiving was pretty good, we only had one dinner, and there was zero work to do becasue no one wanted the missionaries around. So we pretty much just kicked it with another companionship.

Hope all else is going well.

Love you all!!!!

Elder Ettinger

ps. i think im getting a wart on my thumb... i havent had one for like 10 years! im so mad.

pps. I want a sweater for Christmas, a mission appropriate one of course. what do you all want?

Kyle 11/28/11

Hello Family!

Thanksgiving this past week was pretty good! it was very different compared to not being at home with the family. But i still had a good time. We ended up eating a full lunch, and two dinners on thanksgiving! holy cow! it was so much food it wasn't even funny!!

My first real district meeting is going to be tomorrow, they don't hold district meetings on the same day as transfers. But since the missionaries in my district all stayed again this transfer, we were able to go to lunch and get to know everyone. We have 3 sets of missionaries in my district including E. Thorpe and myself. and there are 4 Districts in the applevalley stake, hope that answered dads question.

I got a call from the lake arrowhead missionaries last night, i thought they maybe found uncle tim tracting or something. But they just needed a phone number from me. I told them to look out for the glassetts up there though.

So i was gonna start christmas shopping... Any requests from the family? if not, i'll just send some coal off of some railroad tracks down in the sticks of our area. ha

Hope you guys have a wonderful week!!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

p.s.. i woke up this morning with a killer sore back, and a bad cold, AND a sore throat!! Yay for me!!! Don't worry mom, i took some medicine.

Ames - 11/22/11 Big news!

So i pretty much thought that i would be staying with elder turnbull for another transfer, or have him leave and me "Mom" another companion. That wasnt the case.. I got a call from President Killpack this last thursday. I, like kyle, got a calling. I didnt go district leader though, Im Training! Holy Cow! i was, and still am, super nervous about the whole thing> My new comp is from Coalsville Utah, and i just met him like a few hours ago. Im mostly nervous because i still dont know what im doing really. But i know that it will help me to grow as well. So thats why im excited for it.
Crazy awesome week this week. On thursday night we had a lesson with all those girls like we usualy do on every thursday. But this last one the oldest girl, told us that she wanted to be baptized on saturday! Elder Turnbull and myself were freaking out! haha, so we threw together a baptism on friday and she was interviewed and baptized on saturday! and then confirmed on sunday at church.  Elder Turnbull did the baptism and i was able to do the confirmation. The lord knows how to bless us thats for sure :D
Im glad to hear all the fun times in japan. When we are off of our missions we will have to go :D. Speaking of sushi though, we are going to an all you can eat chinese place tonight with some members. so that should be tasty.
One other way sweet story. We were eating lunch at this sonoran hot dog stand (Hot dogs wrapped in bacon :) ) and there were a bunch of missionaries there and this guy comes up to all of us and bets anyone of us to eat a habenero pepper and keep it down for 10 minutes, and he would give you 20 bucks. None of the missionaries were stepping up to the plate, so naturaly i HAD to. So i shook his hand and popped that pepper in my mouth. It was pretty hot, but not as hot as that chilli that i had back in the Gila Valley. Ten minutes were up and i scored a 20. =) best lunch on the mission so far. 
All else is going good. Like i said im nervous about this whole training gig. but its going to be a blessing i know it. 
Love you all so much!
have a great Thanksgiving. (We are eathing with the Westfalls, so dont be surprised if he calls you again)
God Speed
Elder Ettinger

Now you see it . . . 

Now you don't.  Missionary service

Elder Sims, Elder Ettinger and Elder Staley, Ames' new companion

Additional news from Kyle 11/21/11

Hello family again, i was givin permission to jump back on the computer real quick to let you guys know that i was called by our mission president earlier tonight, and president called me to be a district leader :) just wanted to let you know i accepted the call, i'm super nervous but if i get a good district, it'll be a really fun time. Some extra prayers for my calling would be very appreciative! love you all! have a great week!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle is no longer a greenie!

Hello everyone,

I'm once again staying in the village ward of applevalley!! i decided i'm just gonna serve here for the first year of my mission, and then serve in lake arrowhead the other year. ha

So this past week has been a pretty slow week, but we did have some great success one of the days! Sunday was a really great day for two reasons! The first being that the _______ family came to church again! for the second time in a row! i was totally stoked about it! And one of the sisters said afterwards, "Church just felt right today".. I was so happy to hear that i was smiling way big! and she thought i was really weird! it was great! ha and the second thing that made my day was that the same sister stopped smoking! She held strong to the 15 steps that we taught her, and now she has alot less cravings to smoke, and she's really excited to know how much money she is going to save over the course of the years. It was a good day!

Today it is super foggy outside! and we're going down the hill a little bit to hike the mormon rocks! It'll be my second time! but elder thorpe hasnt been so i'm going down for him. but it will also be the last time that i get to see one of my good missionary friends Elder Tenney from richfield UT. He's being transfered down the hill.

Our zone is going to have some crazy problems next transfer because the spanish elders car is leaving one of the appartments. leaving me and our car in charge of trying to give rides to....lets see... 10 other missionaries!!!! How the crap is this suppost to work??

As missionaries, we never hear about the news. So i didn't know that a twin missionary died in texas. Thats really sad!!

Hey dad, so we have a member in our ward that is wanting to buy a small fishing boat. I told him you might be up for selling/giving away the two small marine engines out in the shed. (if you still have them) just let me know! thanks

i'm very excited that i'm staying for the holidays this next transfer! thanksgiving is going to be spent at about 4 or 5 different members houses! Lots of invites ha! But christmas is going to be spent with my favorite family. We're gonna go over to there parents house and have dinner and stuff. It should be a good time! I don't expect alot of christmas presents this year. if not none at all. Just a heads up on that.

Hope your week goes well! and everyone is adjusted from japan! i'm excited for the cards and pictures!!

Love you guys!

Elder Kyle Ettinger

Dense fog in Apple Valley, CA

Ames - 11/14/11

I cant belive that this transfer is already over! holy cow this one went by fast! probibly the fastest so far on the mission.

This last week was a pretty cool week. On Thursday we had a half mission confrence, and Elder Halick from the Seventy came to speak to us.

It was a really good confrence, and i learned alot. We then all had lunch together, and Elder Halick sat at our table! so i got to eat lunch with a General Authority! yea its pretty legit! He then went over to the other side of the mission, for the other half, but he was back on sunday for our stake Confrence. So we got to hear from him a couple of times. He was super nice, and it was really cool that he didnt act like he was something special, he is just a normal guy!

Its flippin crazy that kyle and i hit  6 months this week! It went super fast for me, how about everyone else back home? Time just flies. 1/4th of the mission is gone =(

Japan sounds awesome. Im still super jealous about the whole thing, and the fact that you are going out for sushi is pretty much the dumbest thing i have heard all mission... such a let down =( haha. its all good though. What time did dad end up running it in? was it alot diffrent the the STG because of the altitude? did ya get any squeeses while you were running? haha

So this week, i was thinking about the mission, and how we are to share the gospel with everyone that we see, and especialy when the spirit prompts you to talk to a spesific person. It reminded me of the time in D-Land when we were riding the train around the outside of the park when it was raining really hard, and dad started sharring his testimony with that random english guy. I just remember being so embarrased that dad would do that!, but looking back on it now, thats exactly what we ALL should have been doing! Props Dad! That is one thing that i have changed in my life, not being ashamed to share what i have with those around me!

Love the Gospel!

Love you all

God Speed

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - 11/14/11

Dear Family,

Hey everyone! This past week has been pretty good! But i'm especially excited to report for the events that happened yesterday. It was by far the best sunday on my mission thus far.

I know i've told you about the _______. Who are two sisters with 5 kids. And one of the sisters is married. Elder thorpe gave a talk yesterday. And they finally came to church!!!!!! They stayed for sacrament meeting, and for primary and sunday school for them and the kids!! i was so excited about it! That's not all! After church we went over to their house to teach them a weekly lesson. We showed the kids the restoration DVD. But then we also went over to try and get ____ to stop smoking. The church has a stop smoking lesson, with 15 steps you do everyday. and its garanteed to work. We're praying so hard for her! and your prayers would be much appreciated!

Today for P-day we're playing dodgeball against another zone. And then we're also gonna watch the movie tangled. It should be a pretty exciting day. 

I hope japan has been a great trip! Sounds like you were treated like kings and queens at the marathon! Wish we could've beent here to help cheer dad on.

thanks for all the love and support! Missions are so legit!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 11/7/11

Hello everyone,

So this past week has been pretty good. We were able to teach a few less active lessons, and a lesson with our investigator. Who we got more information about. He has this choir ... That he goes to at the first sunday of each month. So we're gonna try and commit him to come to the second and third sundays of the month in a row. We'll see how that goes this week.

We Were also able to teach another kid in our ward, who is turning 9 in the beginning of december, so he has a baptismal date for dec 3 a day before his birthday. So its not gonna be a convert baptism. But the whole family has been one of the families that i KNOW with out a doubt i was sent here to help. Its been a bumpy road. But they're now considered an active family again! i'm way stoked about it. Also they're gonna be moving to hurricane UT in Feb 2013. So we'll be close in touch after my mission.

For halloween This year, i went to walmart and used some of my walmart gift card to buy Phase Ten. To play at another mission appartment. There was like 6 elders all playing games. We had a really good time. We had to be "IN" at 6:00. But it didn't matter what appartment. Which was a really nice thing for us.

From japan, maybe if your could just send some cool pictures. i'm trying my best not to accumulate to many things... accept for shoes as you saw last week. I've only bought one pair of shoes since i left. The others were given to me, or i already had them when i came out.

Thats about everything thats going on for me this week. Thanks for the pictures of our mission plaques. They look really good!

hope all is well in your travels! i pray for you lots!!!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

A note to the deacons..

If you're not sure if you're going a serve a mission, think about the many blessings that heavenly father has given us. He Died for us, he suffered for us. And giving him two years to bring our fellow brothers and sisters back to him. Is only a little task for us to do. Serving a mission has blessed my life so much! i've learned many different ways to help others come closer to christ. The blessings and miracles are there every day! If you ask what you should do now to prepare?... Begin to read the Preach My Gospel Manual that you use as a missionary. Its something i wish i did alot more before my mission. Read it from cover to cover, the information we recieve from it, is inspired and helpful! GO GET EM!

Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 11/7/11

Once again its crazy to look back on how much time has gone by and how much has been done in that time. Crazy stuff thats for sure.

This week has been alot slower week than last, we didnt get to teach very many lessons, and we didnt get to see as many investigators, but its all good.

Sometimes they can all be super frustraiting, like you just want to force the gospel on them becasue you know that it will blss the so much! t they have their stupid agency which lets them choose the wrong path =/ We have a lesson with the ____ girls tonight, the oldest one said that she would have an answer for us tonight about baptism, so pretty excited/nervous about that. Also this last week, our other investigator  brought up some more concerns that we didnt even know he had, which makes me feel that he is alot futher from baptism than we thought =/ so that was quite a bummer. But i guess we have to have the not so good weeks in the mission so that the good weeks seem better. =D

Anywho! unfortunatly last week we were not able to carve pumpkins with the other elders, President wanted us to all be home at our own places. I was so bumbed becasue i got this sweet joseph smith stencil off of the computer that i really wanted to carve... Im going to do it next year for sure!

One cool thing this last week was that we had interviews with our mission president, He is such a legit guy! the very first question in the interview was "How are you doing personaly?" he cares about us as a real person before he worries about the missionary behind that person. Pretty sweet. So those were really good. He told me that im doing good things as the senior companion and that he can really tell that i have helped out. I didnt think I was doing that great of a job personaly, but i guess im doing more than i think.

So those are some pretty sweet looking bikes, how much did those puppies go for? Did you have to sell the Tent Trailer to afford that? haha remember how mad us kids were when dad used that money to by his other road bike haha good times.

So a little encouragement for the Geekcons :

     When it comes to serving a mission, there is nothing that you can sacrifice that will even come close to the blessings that you will be giving to other people. You will meet people that according to the world "Have it all", but in Gods eyes they are missing something that is much more important. It isnt up to them to find what they are missing, becasue many of them dont know that they are missing anything at all. It is up to Me and You and every other worthy young man out there to find them and share with them what they need. We have the responsibility to find them. It is up to us! (Hope that is good =P)

 Cant wait to hear all the stories from japan!

I want Pictures!

Love ya!

Elder Etttinger

On the basketball hoop taking photos of other missionaries

Kyle - Halloween

Dear Family,

Happy halloween everyone!

This past week has really been a slow one for sure! All of our appointments fell through! And most of our dinner families canceled on us as well! I guess there are alot of people getting some sort of flu. Everyones been calling in sick i guess you could say.

I'll bet the parents are excited for the trunk or treat? We had ours saturday night, and it was combined with two wards. super fun! And one of our less active families showed up and i asked them if they'd come to church the next day to hear me speak on the book of mormon. They said they would! and i was way stoked! However, sunday came, and i saw that the mom walked in the back, talked to a member, then went home. I Got the news after sacrament that their family had been robbed the night before, during the trunk or treat. And they had to deal with the police reports the next morning. But they said they WILL for sure come next sunday, the non-member dad told me this. So i'm excited for next sunday!

Senior Companion, has been a pretty easy job. i dont do anything different other than, drive the car, and report our numbers at the end of each week. We both take part in planning our days and stuff like un to it.

for p-day today we had a zone hike to bell mountain, My commpanion and i didn't go, because it would conflict with the time that we could email today. Which i dunno if we're even suppose to since its a holiday.

I'm excited for you guys to go to japan! Thats really exciting stuff!

i hope everyone has a good week!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle's shoe collection

Elder Kyle Ettinger and Elder Thorpe at trunk or treat

Ames - Halloween

Pretty excited for the day today, being Halloween and such. We are planning on having a normal P-Day today, the usual basketball and what not. Im getting alot better at it, and I really enjoy playing it now :D. But, becasue it is halloween, we have to be in our apartments at 6:00 PM becasue of all the stuff that goes on at night for Halloween. So, we are thinking of getting together witha couple other elders and carving some pumpkins and stuff, we are planning on asking our zone leaders today if that would be ok. Pretty stoked about it :D

We had an awesome week this week. Two New Investigators!!!! thats the most i have gotten in a week on my mission! and we taught more lessons this week then any other week on my mish as well! im so excited about it! haha. One of our new investigators was from tracting too! which is super rare. And it just goes to show that the lord is preparing people to hear the gospel. This guy is super accepting and was really excited about setting up a return appointment. Exciting stuff going on :D

 Dad: Yes, there is a bone yard here in marana, i get to drive past it every week to go to church, it is pretty small, but it has 5 or 6 old fighter jet skeletons, ill make sure to get a picture of it one of these days... I didnt know that you were a non-commital dry mormon dad? what did it take to finaly get you to commit to baptism, because we are having a hard time with this one? =/

Being senior comp is good, its more of a techinicality if anything. And I have been out only 6 weeks more than Elder Turnbull, so its not like I know much more. I am learning lots though, being more of a leader than my usual follower.

Mom: I have some family history questions!! are we related to a Marvin Ettinger? or a Nell Ettinger? Nell is a lady in Florida i guess? thats pretty much all the information i have on them, some people have asked me about them so i figured that i would at least ask about the names.

 

Cant wait to see what happens this next week!

Love you all,

God Speed

Elder Ettinger

Elder Turnbull and Elder Ames Ettinger

Ames - October 24, 2011

Just like mom said, this month has just flown by! holy cow its almost november!

Well, just like in other weeks, this one has been pretty much the same. Im sorta liking it here in the picture rocks ward, its still not as cool as my other wards, but it is getting better.

Thanks for the packages this week! I got both marens and moms. Unfortunatly moms somehow got a hole in the side of the box, and some ants made there way into one of my fruit snack bags! i was sooooo pissed, but the rest of the stuff was A Okay.

Last night when we were at dinner the dad was like "Elders!.. im going to call your parents and tell them that you're doing good. because when my kids were all over the country i would have killed for just a phone call! Ettinger!! whats your phone number" haha it was funny. I could hear dads voice and it seemed like to me that you didnt really know how to take the fact that he called haha. Pretty funny stuff. Cant wait to actually call you guys on Christmas! should be pretty fun!

We are teaching three sisters, they are 13, 10, and 8. They are so goofy and lots of fun to be around. we were able to teach them twice this last week, and we have a couple more appointments this week. We will be able to baptise the oldest one, but the younger two have a different dad and both parents need to agree on baptism of the kids. And the dad is pretty anti =( . but that is just a little bump in the road. They are way cool.

We also are teaching a highschool kid. He has been taught before, but he just wants to make sure he "Knows" that this is what he wants to do. He could totally be baptized tomorrow, he has a testimony and what not, and he lives his life like a mormon, so he wouldnt have to make any big changes. We arnt sure what the heck is his hold up! I wish he would just get it ya know!

 

Not much else going on, I wish i had some cool stories and stuff like that. Maybe Next week!

Love, Elder Ettinger

Kyle - Oct 24, 2011

Hello everyone,

This past week has had a few really cool things that happened.

First off, last tuesday we were called as we were heading home around 8:45, and we were asked to go give a blessing to a guy in our ward who just had a heart attack. We headed over to the hospital and checked in as visitors. First, before we checked in i helped a lady jump start her car. That was the first blessing of help. Second, we found where the man in our ward was being held, and we were able to give him a really cool blessing, and he said we could come check on him this next week, which was a miracle.  The third and most amazing miracle. While we were trying to find the member who had the heart attack. A random lady came up to elder thorpe and i and asked if we could give her a blessing, we told her we could but we had to give one to our member first. Well time came for the blessing, and she asked me to do it for her, it went well. But the amazing part was, is that she told us she was trying to become a member and she asked ME to baptize her when she was ready, and for elder thorpe to do the comfirmation! It was such a cool experience! The lord really puts his missionaries in the right place at the right time.

Last Saturday, we had a big service project out in the middle of the desert at a place called "El Mirage" (Google it) which is a big OHV riding area, and it has a big long 5 mile dry lakebed where they hold landspeed races and what not. We were there doing service for a few hours, picking up trash and cleaning the camp sites up. I had tons of fun being around the dirtbikes and hearing those loud noises again, i also go to hang out with Elder Bowler. 

The last great part of the week was the pinewood derby race on saturday night! We had a bunch of different classes to race in. My car was registered in the "Rally" Class which allowed you to do whatever you wanted to the car, as long as you were under 10 oz. My car ended up being 7 oz. And i took 1st place in the rally class! i'll hopefully be able to post pictures of my car.

The past week has been super fun! and i'm looking forward to this next week! Last week we had 7 less active lessons taught, and about that many planned for this up coming week.

Next sunday i'm giving a talk in sacrament meeting on the book of mormon. Should be exciting!

Thanks for package of stuff, everything came in good condition. I haven't tried my shirt on yet. I'll have to do that when i get back to our apartment today.

Thanks for all that you do! I love you all! have a great week

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

New companion, Elder Thorpe

Rally division Champion!

First Week - Ames 10/17/11

So this last week has been a really slow week. All the schools were let out this last week for fall break, so pretty much no one was home. Elder Turnbull has been taking me around to meet some of the members in the ward, but like none of them are home. So we have been doing a whole lot of nothing the past few days So its been pretty sucky. But i am reallty excited for this coming week. we have alot of investigators, so there is plenty of work to do. we now just have to go out and do it. haha. I really miss the Gila Valley, I made some really awesome friends there, so this change has been pretty lame. But im where the lord wants me to be, so thats where i will be.

Thats way cool about the people talking about red dog. Ill have to start asking around to all the football gurus to see if i can find someone who knows him.

Other than that I dont got a whole lot of news, The day to day of missionary work is pretty much the same. Sorry.

Love, Elder Ettinger

This desert tortoise lives outside Ames's trailer 

Kyle - Oct 17, 2011

Hello Everyone,

This past week has been pretty stressful! Because my Ames went senior companion last transfer, and i'm his twin, i also went senior companion this transfer. But stayed in the same area, which i'm pretty happy with. My new companion Elder Thorpe is from North Ogden, UT. He's a really motivated worker, and it should be a really good transfer, our numbers have already climbed a little bit since he's got here. i'll send some pictures probably next week or something.

Being senior companion i have the rights to be the "Designated Driver" Which means i drive all the time for the companionships. i've only ran two stop signs and almost got in an accident once. Its funny to see how crappy i am as a driver since i haven't driven for like 4.5 months.

We'll be out on missions for 5 months tomorrow. Which is totally crazy! the time goes by so fast! 

Thats cool that Ty patterson was called to chicago. maybe he'll be in the same mission as Kyle Brandt.

We have a pinewood derby coming up this next saturday, i wish i had my car from when i was a cub scout! but hey, i aquired a kit and i'm making a new one. I'm gonna be racing my car in whats called the "Rally" division. Which means anything goes! just have to stay under 10 ounces. It should be a great ward activity!!

thanks for all of your love and support! 

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Goodbyes - Ames 10/10/11

So if you didnt guess, i was transferred. This last couple days have been pretty diffrent from the rest of my mission. All day monday was spend packing and saying goodbyes to all of the friends that i have made over the last four months. Easily the hardest day of my mission. Brother Palmer, one of the ward mission leaders, told me a comforting quote. "The best part of your mission is loving the people. The Hardest part is leaving them. Thats how you know your doing your job." Well he was definatly right, it was really hard to leave the Gila Valley. And leaving on the day of a Baptism... I missed it by only hours. But its not about who is there, its why they are there.
So where am i ?!? The Tucson West Zone. Serving in the Picture Rocks ward. My companion is Elder Turnbull from Eagle Idaho. He has been out on his mission for two transfers! Im Already Senior Companion! Oh my gosh!!! Im super nervous about it. but he seems really cool. . . So im pretty excited about this next transfer.
Some crazy stuff that has been happening as of late. Last week for P-Day we went to a place called red Knolls. Its a way fun place to hike and mess around. While i was there i got stung by a freaking bee! I was so pissed. It hurt for like three days, and spread on my leg and even right now it is still quite bruised looking. I also got a knife this last week. just to carry with me just in case i ever need one. and of course i cut myself with it! lame.
Thats pretty much it for this week. Im still trying to calm down about the changes that are happening. ha. Im just anxious i guess.
Love you all!
Elder Ettinger 

A huge pit at Red Knolls

Bats at Red Knolls

Ames' cut thumb

Elder Ettinger Photos

Bro. & Sis. Ettinger,

 We have truly enjoyed having your son in our Ward. Sad to see him transferred today, but I know he will enjoy Tucson. He is a great missionary and you should be very proud of him. I hope you enjoy some of the photos I have taken while he served here. I told him tonight (when he came to say good-bye) I would send them to you. 

May the Lord bless you and your family as he continues to serve Him faithfully. 

Gordon Thatcher

Late transfer calls = Stress! Kyle 10/10/11

Hey family!

So i just got the call about 15 or 20 minutes ago that i'm not moving again this transfer, but i am getting a new companion! elder Riley was called as a zone leader for his last transfer! which is really weird! he's a little nervous, but i told him he'll enjoy doing it.

My past week has been full of events it seems like! Last monday we were informed that we had a temple trip on wednesday as a zone. So we hurried and called around to try and find someone to take us. Brother j  (a great ward friend) didn't work that day, so he took us down in his very luxurious Cadillac CTS V series! i know you dont know what that is. But its just a very fast sports car! It was really fun going to the temple! everytime i go i feel the spirit so strong and its just so great!

Last thursday we had a mission tour, where a different elder packer of the seventy came to speak to us. The meeting was from 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon!  LONG!! But it was really uplifting! and i also got to see elder millward, and Elder Roberts from st. George, who wanted to say hi to maren, and mom and dad. which was awkward because he started talkin about his date with maren one time.

I was really upset to hear about the news of buddy! i was really relly hoping he'd be able to grow up till he was thriteen or fourteen years old! Because he seemed to be a real healthy guy! Thanks for the Tribute though. i really enjoyed the pictures! I'm gonna put up a picture of buddy on my desk from now on.

I'm pretty excited/ a little nervous for my new companion. But i'm lookin forward to staying in this ward again. We just got a referal text that we'll go hit up tonight. so we're excited about that!! The work goes on!

Thanks for all your love, prayers and support! 

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Last week of the transfer - Ames Oct. 3, 2011

The last week of the transfer is always the hardest. in more than one way. First of all there is that unknowing of whether or not you are getting transfered, and becasue of that unknowing the work kind of slows down becasue you very well could be gone next week. Its not a very fun time.

This last week has been a fun one. We have continued teaching the football player, however we ran into some complications with his baptisimal date... As you know, it was set for the 22nd of october. well, there was a huge volleyball tourney that alot of his friends will be at that he wanted to be at the baptism. So he asked if he could move it. So we talked it over, about moving it a week back, or a week forward. and we told him why we didnt want to move it back. So he looked through his planner, and you could tell he was thinking about it really hard, and he looked up with a smile and said, We will do it the 15th. I couldnt help but smile. it was so cool. So a couple days later we get a call from his buddy dallin that has been going to the lessons with us and he had talked with his mom and found out that there would be a huge multi stake youth confrence that day.. another pickle. so in our next lesson with him we talked about it some more to try and find a date, we explained that it didnt need to be on a saturday, that any day of the week would work. So he checked his planner again and found the date that would work best.. the 11th of October =)... we smiled and said ok. This kid is so legit he has a strong testimony, and he is super excited to be baptized. The only bad part is that it is on transfer day, he doesnt know that, becasue we dont want to influence him at all. So that is another reason that i would be happy to stay in the Gila Valley. And this place is like home now. I have made such good friends with the members and it would just be hard to leave. but! thats not my choice, its the lords. So we will see what kind of calls we get next sunday!

 

Love you all!

God Speed

Elder Ettinger

 

Some other funny Stuff:

I was browsing Mormon.org the other day like we do once a week. And i was looking for people who liked photography, guess who one of the results were. Danielle Gilley, well former gilley. i dont know her new last name. haha I thought that was pretty funny.

Also, During general conf. i saw (the people we look for in the choir) within the first 5 minutes of the first session! Yea i'm boss at eye spy.

 

Kyle - Oct 3, 2011

Hello folks,

The past week  has been pretty good, not a whole lot going on. But i do have one really neat experience to share.

we were on exchanges last friday, and the spanish elder in our zone came to my area. His name is elder tenney, who is actually from richfield, UT. We were tracting friday morning while it was still somewhat cool outside. We finished tracting one big long street with only a few contacts and no return appointments. We then decided to try a new street. But before we drove down the street to scope it out. We decided to pray, and ask heavenly father to give us a blessing, to choose one house to knock on. so we finished our prayer and slowly drove down the road, looking at all the houses waiting for inspiration.

We got to one house and elder tenney and i glanced at it at the same time and said, in unison, "That one...". We immediatly pulled over and grabbed our bags, and ran up to the door. A guy opened it that didn't even live there. He was a worker that was fixing the house. We shared the message about the book of mormon. And he got really excited about it. We gave him a card, and he said he'd call the number to get the book of mormon. It was a pretty neat experience.

I really enjoyed reading the story about dad helping that person across the finish line, its always so fun when we are able to serve others unexpectedly. its one of my favorite parts of the mission so far.

Yes transfers are coming up this next week. I'm hoping to stay in the same ward, alot of the ward members want me to stay. But, i'll be happy with whatever happens. change is tough, but good in some cases.

Hope all is well in St George! i'm looking forward to see what you sent with miguelle. He's such a funny guy! He and his parents are the ones that want me to stay the most.

I love you all and hope everything is going well!

 Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger.