Another Week in the North - Ames 7/212

     The North Zone is going great :D im loving it here. I can see myself staying for a little while and getting used to this place :D. This last week has been an awesome one! We have two baptisms set up for the 14th, and we were able to find an awesome new investigator a few nights ago and we have a return appointment for this tuesday. We are working super hard and we are raking in the blessings :) Elder Ranger and I talked at the begining of the transfer and decided that we wanted to be the best missionaries that we can be up here in the Tortolita ward, and we are doing just that :)

    Today for P-Day we went down into Tucson and met up with the Tucson Zone and we played a bunch of footbal and frisbee. I was able to see a couple old companions and some old mission buddies. Allways a good time :D.

     The mission is so much fun! Just like kyle said, the last year cant be traded for anything at all. My understanding of the gospel is much greater than when I came out. The Gospel isnt just a part of my life now, it is my life.

     Got a letter from Elder Sims this week. He will be coming back to Eastern Arizona College in the Gila Valley for school. Super Excited to go over on temple trips and see how he is doing. Awesome guy.

     Not a whole lot else to report for this week!

     Love you all!

    Elder Ettinger

Kyle 7/2/12

Hey everyone,

 

Man the past few days really flew by since i emailed on wednesday.

The past couple days we were able to meet with some really cool members!

One of them we got in with, and found out that he is a way big time drummer! i was way stoked about that!

We talked drums for almost an hour, and also talked about his DJ business, and how he is also into graphic arts!

Alot of things that i am into! it was great!

We later went to a members house that has been having some tough times in his life, we gave him some encouragment, and also played some games of foozeball! i had alot of practice in applevalley with elder thorpe, so we totally kicked butt! it was so much fun! we are gonna try and go over a little more often to help strenghthin our friendship with him.

 

My companion and i are getting along great, we always have some good laughs just about everyday! missionary work is so very fun!! there is nothing else id rather be doing during these two years!! i am doing all i can to try and get the most out of it.

 

So i remember back at home how the utah DMV was such a lame place, always waiting in long lines...well. You guys havent seen the California DMV!!! we showed up 15 minutes before it opened, and the line was at the door, wrapped around the building! we Stood in line for almost two hours, to only find out that my companion needed his birth cert. in order to get a new license! time wasted!!! but it was alright because we got to witness a girl getting injured in the dmv, and they called 911. So that was pretty intense.

 

Thanks for everyones love and support!! sorry its a bit short today.

Hope all is going well at the house! keep the grass looking nice! ha

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger.

Kyle 6/27/12

Dear family,

 

Man it feels like it has been two years since i've been able to email since our p day was today and not last monday. The week has been pretty good, we were able to get into a couple different less active homes, who the ward hasnt been able to contact for a really long time! it just shows that missionaries have a really special impact on the ward that they are assigned to. Back in the village ward, i had a cool experience where the gate to this house is ALWAYS locked, and there is no way to walk it. Well, the one time that my comp and i tried to visit them with a member on splits, the gate was wide open and we were able to talk to the people living there. Pretty cool.

 

Anyways, So the event of the week is that our car is in the shop getting a new bumper. Which will put about $1800 on the churchs tab. Man auto work is so expensive! i wish they would just let me do all the work on our car. But anyways, we will be out of a car for all today, and maybe tomorrow as well. Its okay though. We started to walk to the library, and were picked up by some elders about 3 miles into our adventure.

 

This Transfer, i was released as district leader, and i am praying that ames would be called as DL already!! i've been DL for 6 months! and he hasnt been dl at all! that little bum! ha

So anyways, our District leader is bran new to the calling, i am hoping that i'll be able to help him learn and grow with his calling, president always puts past DLs with the new ones. To help them out a bit. One of our district transfer goals is counting all of the 50 states license plates. We so far have California, texas, arizona, and missouri. I am suprised we haven't seen Utah yet. But its gonna be a fun way to unify our district.

 

I hope everyone is having a really good time!!  Being safe and spreading the good word!

Thanks for everyones love and support!!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Tortlita Ward - Ames 6/25/12

The Tortalita ward is so much diffrent then deming, while i was in deming we would usualy have 60-70 people in church each week. Yesterday at church we easily had 300. Quite the change i must say. it was rather overwhelming with so many people. The chaple was so loud before and after sacrament meeting, not super reverent. and the halls were just packed with people that you couldnt make your way to class! Crazy. Our ward mission leader is super gun ho about the member missionary work, its allways good to have a motivated WML. He just recently moved into the ward from the Picture Rocks ward :D So i allready knew him, that was kinda fun. Our ward is super young too which is completly diffrent from deming. I occasionaly find myself wishing i was back in new mexico, i dont think i ever thought i would miss it because it is so po-dunk, but i really miss some of the people there :( I hope i make it back at some point.

We have a baptism set for the 14th of july! super excited! The guy is super ready to make the transition. He read the Book of Mormon in three weeks! I was impressed. We also have one other gator who has a date for the 14th, but we havent started teaching her yet so we may have to bump it back a week, but we will get her there for sure. The work in the ward is booming :D Its going to be a fun transfer.

Im jealous of the mountain pictures! There is so much brown here its so mundane! Im getting sick of all the dirt =P. But life goes on.

So a few days before i left deming we had a rain storm. So what does Elder Ettinger do? Grabs the camera and posts it up on the portch for an hour taking pictures of the lightning :D It was really fun. Elder handerhan was feeling sick so we were home a little early and he went to bed, so i took pictures.

The one picture with the really big one in it turned out blurry :( i was so mad! But i had to keep it beacuse it was huge.

The work is going great.

Have an awesome week of travels!

Love you all,

Elder Ettinger

A storm in Deming, NM