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