Kyle August 13, 2012

Dear Family,

It seems like it is always the beginning of the month, then it is almost the middle of the month, and then out of  no where it is the end of the month! i dont understand!!

I dunno if the family knows, but ames and i have been sending a memory card back and forth through the mail. So we have been able to see eachothers appartments, and see some fun things that have been going on. its really fun to show other missionaries how my twin brother is.

This past week was pretty good! We went on splits with one of the members. And we felt prompted to stop in at a house that hadn't been visited for awhile. The Less active member was home, and we got to talk about his old job in Ephraim UT as a deputy sherriff i think. It was way cool to hear some of his stories. The member we took over there is really in to hotrod cars, and doing auto mechanics. The Member we visited is also very interested in cars. So they hit it off really well, and we talked to the EQ president to change him as his home teacher. ha our bishop said "Sometimes we are very inspired on who people home teach, and sometimes, like right now, we make changes because they just make sense" it was kinda funny.

Our investigator came to church again!! and made alot of good comments in the Gospel Principles class! We are planning on teaching her about the plan of salvation this next wednesday. Its pretty awesome.

Thanks for giving us a good update on how the roadtrip went! Sounds like something i really didnt miss out on in the small car ha. But i am sorry that we missed it. We will be able to go on more trips when we get home, no worries.

So i just need to let jake know really quick, that maren showed us her amazing wedding dress!! And i just wanted to rub it in your face!! and make you get all anxious and upset that you have to wait till december! ha Sucka!!!!

I know that we only have nine months left. Thanks for the good words of encouragment! Family support is so helpful! and i wouldnt be able to serve to my fullest without you guys!!

Today for P-day we are planning on playing some indoor kickball!! Pretty awesome!

I will probably relax a bit, and also play some piano as well.

hope everyone is having a great day full of laughs and good times!! Thanks for all of the love and support! You guys are the best!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames August 13, 2012

Sounds like you guys had a nice LONG road trip :) haha. I agree with kyle, sitting in a car that long isnt much to miss out on.

I was actualy just talking to one of my mission buddies about how i get to go to the other side of the country now to make visits :D im thinking that while over there we may need to take a trip out to some sweet dive spots. Another missionary in my District, Elder Bouwhuis, is Scuba certified so we talked about it today while driving around. Im excited to go get in some water next summer.

Today we went and hit that sweet mountain biking trail again :D it was super fun, we didint go the wrong way this time! which made it alot more fun. We took two more missionaries this time as well so it was fun to have a bigger group. We only had two wad it up and they were both minor, and both were over the handle bars, funny how that always seems to happen.

We have Zone confrence this week, should be fun, i like going to them now because i get to see old mission buddies and what not. As well as get uplifted and encouraged :D

Love Marens Dress! haha, Jake should feel left out! haha. I like how you can see mom and dad in the mirror as well!

This last week was another slow week, the missionary work up here in the north Zone is super diffrent than anywhere else i have served. Everyone is gone from 9-5 and then once it gets a little dark in the evenings no one wants to answer the door! aaa its difficult. Ill probibly be here for confrence though which would be really fun, we have some really cool members here in the ward.

So maren moved into a house? i didnt know that, i figured that it would be into an appartment. Crazy crazy!

Sorry that this one is so short,

hope all is going well on the home front!

Love you lots,

Elder Ettinger

Ames August 6, 2012

Sick Pday!

    So for pday today, we went on a gnarly mountain bike trail that is pretty close to where we live, It was elder Ranger and my self and another companionship. At the beginning we took a wrong turn and hit this really sweet downhill section, but then once we were at the bottom we realized that we would have to turn around and go back up it... not as fun. So off we went, I took a pretty fast pace becasue i wanted to get back to the top to start the ride, almost past out a couple times which sucked but we made it back. We started the real ride and about a mile or so in i started feeling like passsing out again, so we stopped to chill for a bit. After that the ride was really nice and there were some really sweet sections that were rocky and narrow. at one point you have to ride up and over a boulder, really fun trail, dad and kyle would love it! i took a couple pics but i will send them next week because i left my bag at the appartment because it is all sweaty :D We are going to hit it up again in a few weeks and not take the wrong turn :)

     Well the last week in the missionary life was a pretty slow, we had a bumch of appointments fall through, i hate appotments that fall through. Its all good though, we were able to get in touch with a few less actives so that was really awesome. honestly thought this week was lame, so i dont have a whole lot to write about haha, mainly this ride we went on was the coolest thing.

Keep on being safe on your drive, i feel bad that its so long, ha but im glad im not driving with yalls! haha.

     Ill have more to report on this next week :) love you all tons and tons!

Elder Ettinger

ps, Yea i got your pedegree chart mom, it was pretty hard to read, but ill just copy down the info, i need to talk to brother ettinger again and get more info on his fam. We will see.

pps, the hables sent a package full of goodies this last week, pretty excited about that. ( gonna write them a thank you this week mom ;) )

Kyle August 6, 2012

Hey there Family,

The trip to north carolina seems super long!! it reminds me of the trip we took to uncle joels! isnt that the time that maren and i had to do some "Roadwork" together? Good times! good times!

So i just noticed that jake Cannon is part of these family emails now. Hmm, dunno if i really approve of that! ha just kidding. Future family can be part of the emails i guess.

So we have found a new finding activity!! We have been going to a couple different parks in our ward, and our district leaders ward, and drawing the whole plan of salvation out on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk!! Its so cool because people come up to us and ask what we are drawing, and we can start teaching them about gods plan for us, right then and there. pretty fun stuff! However, we found out that one of the two drawings got washed off pretty quick. Maybe it is something about church and state ha.

Our investigator came to sacrament meeting Yesterday! and she totally bore her testimony!! We are really excited about that! She is such a cool lady! She is so close to the gospel already, i think ward members thought she was just an inactive member ha.

I got the drum peddle over To the kid in my ward. And as soon as he saw it he was just totally thrilled! He was like "Dude a Tama Peddle! These things are the bomb!" ha

His mom is on the ward council, and she came up to me yesterday and said "That was nice of you to give kyle that drum peddle, i can sure HEAR that he likes it" ha

We are gonna be going over to there house another time for me to help him tune up his drums and make them sound really good. Im excited for that.

Maren, i printed out your wedding registry thing at target! Talk about a bunch of boring house stuff!! lame!! ha Just kidding. I am exctied to browse around and get you some things for your wedding!

Thats really all that is going on here!! Sounds like everyone is having a good time! We got to watch a few minutes of the olympics last night at our dinner appointment. We watched the womens diving. pretty cool stuff.

Keep treking along the country!! Be safe and we will talk to you later!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames July 31, 2012

So Elder Ranger and i are going for round two, pretty excited about it. After this transfer I will have been with elder ranger for a total of three transfers, or 4 months, longer than any other companion thus far.

We had a pretty slow week this last week. The last week of the transfer is always hard. But now we get to refocus and pump out some work in the next six weeks.

Im glad that everyone had a good time on the hike, i was super jealous that we were missing it. We will have to go on alot of hikes in the summer of 2013.

So we just learned in our email from President Killpack today that we will be having a visitor from the Quorm of the Twelve in September. He didnt say who it was, BUT when you have connections in the mission you can find anything out :) so Elder Ballard will be coming to the mission :) Gotta love informants.

Dad asked for a follow up on a few stories:

The Girl we found a house for was able to end up going to south Tucson to a friends, havent heard from her since that night nor will we. We were talking with the member that helped us yesterday though and we thought that it would be cool randomly find her in like 20 years and see that she joined the church or something. That would be cool.

The Lady we tracted into, hasnt been able to make it to church yet, she is really busy taking care of her parents at this stage in their lives, but we stop by once a week to check up on her.

We havent heard from the teenage girl either, we have her phone number though so we are planning on shooting her a text this week to see whats up. I hope that it turns out well because she was super nice and seemed generaly interested,.

That is the update, im not jealous about your rediculously long car ride this coming week :D haha. that would stink. Make sure you drive safely!

I dont think i have anything else to report on this week. Im sure next week will be amazing!

Love you all!

Elder Ettinger

Kyle July 30, 2012

hey family,

Man where did this transfer go? i cant believe it is already over!!

Well the news is, Elder King and i are staying together yet again! we were both super suprised about that. We are going to do all we can to stay positive and not end up hating each other. It is kinda tough being with the same companion for 4 and a half months! super crazy!

However, since we are both staying, we are gonna be able to go to a priesthood social night on the 9th, and at the end of the month on the 24th and 25th i believe we are gonna go up to a place called "Blue ridge" its through the city of wrightwood up in the mountains. And we are gonna camp!!! so stoked about that. We are gonna try and get some potential gators to go with us as well. So its gonna be a good time! But it is still a little while away. But i know it'll be here before i know it.

dad great questions, i really havent heard much from past comps, and areas of what has been going on with the people that i have worked with in the past. i dont remember anyone that we set up a lesson with that died on my birthday? Thats really weird.

The lady that wanted to be rebaptized, she is still a crazy lady that has ALOT of issues with the church. The girl down in rialto with her sister, i think arent being taught anymore, i'd have to ask the elders down there.

Sounds like a crazy time going down birchhollow. Im sorry mom that you got hurt going down. I hope the rest of the hike made it all worth it. At least you got to spend some more time with marens fiance! Man i am still weirded out by this marriage stuff of marens. Interesting.

Mom i did get the package. thanks for that. i will be taking the drum peddle to the kid in our ward tomorrow probably. I hope you didnt have to pay twice for the postage though. i thought you guys had the right address. my bad.
Maren, i did get your pictures a couple weeks ago. The one with you flying the kite right? yea got em. thanks! Super stoked for the engagment pics and the picture of your ring.

Not much else going on here. my hand is doing well, healing up fast. My old fingernail is coming off more. but its a slow process.

Thanks for all the love and support! Keep having a good time and be safe!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames July 23, 2012

Last week of the Transfer

So guess what? because our zone met our mission standard for baptisms in one month we get to have a big steak BBQ at the mission presidents house this week! haha super stoked for some steak.

This week has been full of awesome miracles. check it out:

So we went tracting a few weeks back and ran into this lady that was really nice but told us to try back in a few weeks, usualy that means dont come back. But we felt like we should try it again. so thursday afternoon we went by and again, she was really busy and told us to come back that evening. Elder Ranger and myself wernt too surprised and we really didnt even think we would go back. That night we had a ward missionary out with us and we tried a bunch of former investigators with absolutly no luck, so we decided to try the lady back because she specificaly told us to come back in the evening. We knocked the door and the lady answered and came out on the portch and talked with us for an hour! She told us her whole life story and how she had been praying for help and guidence and thats when we showed up that afternoon! but she was busy with her dog and really couldnt talk right then. It was awesome, she wanted to come to church but wasnt able, not sure why yet but we are going to keep a close eye on her for sure. Awesome stuff.

Next one: last night we came in a little early becasue everything was going to pot and we were tired from the work week. As we were sitting there the thought came into my mind to go and see this guy named Jesus in our aparment complex. On our way over to his place we past a couple teenagers that were sitting chatting on some grass, the though came in mind to contact them, but it was dark and it would have been kind of awkward, so i just walked by. Knocked on Jesus' door and no one was home and the apartment was super dark, dang. The thought then came into my head, "You walked past the reason you came to see Jesus, go contact them." I taked it over with elder Ranger, we were both not wanting to al all because of the awkwardness of walking by once and not saying a word, but because i felt like it was the Spirit we did it. We walked up and said hello and i asked if it would be cool if we sat down and chilled with them for a few minutes and the girl was super nice and said that it would be ok. We talked about what they both liked to do and how their summer was going. We brought it around to the gospel and had a great conversation. We talked about church and she expressed an interest in coming on sunday! It was super duper awesome! after we got back to the apartment i was up in the clouds! Missionary work is just awesome!

All else is going well, thanks for the package mom, it helped restock my cupboards :D

Im sad we missed out on felling some bohemoth trees, that would have been really cool.

We will see what this next transfer brings! I cant believe that its already over, and that we can count our months left on our two hands! Its going too fast.

Love you all lots!

God Speed,

Elder Ettinger

Kyle July 23, 2012

Dear Family,

Man lots of crazy stuff going on back at home! Sounds like GFR was a good time! wish i could've been there. It must have been SO boring without ames and i there of course.We are the ones that bring up the good memories with the uncles that is for sure! ha larry's laugh and tim saying cheers. oh good times!!

This past week was really intense! alot of different things happened. Some good and some bad. But we are mostly excited.

something Happened for the very first time in my mission this past week, We were givin an investigator from some other missionaries, that taught a lesson, and already set a date with her for Aug 18th!! So its my first investigator that has a bap. date set! i am way excited. We are going to be meeting her on wednesday, and doing an handoff lesson with the sisters in our zone. The gator, may want to be taught by the sister missionaries only. Which is okay with me, because i know that she will be coming closer to christ. She will be a convert in our ward for sure though.

Next event. We got a new car!! 2011 Toyota corolla, it only has about 8300 miles on it! and its a dark grey, we took off the hubcaps so it looks cooler with the black wheels. I will show you a picture.

Crazy event: We were doing another district tract on saturday, and my companion and i went up to a fence that was closed, i dont normaly go through fenced yards, but i felt prompted to go through this one. We whistled and banged on the fence to make sure there were no dogs. We were all clear. As soon as i walked in and up the walkway to the door. The big Black lab came charging around the corner at me and my comp!! This is the most adrenaline i've ever had with dogs! We turned around and ran for the gate. My companion went through the gate and i didnt have time so i had to jump the fence. Well when i landed outside my hand really hurt. I looked down and noticed that i totally sliced my hand open on the fence! I said to myself "Alright next house that opens and talks to us, i gotta ask them to help me out with my hand" well, the lord works in misterious ways because the next guy that talked to us was a retired nurse for the marines!! Let me tell you, he knows how to scrub out a wound!!!! It felt like he was using sandpaper! Super painful. But it was neat experience. My hand is doing better now no worries

We are winding down to the end of this transfer!! its so crazy to see how fast the 6 weeks go each time!!

Keep having fun and sharing your testimonies with others!!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle's cut hand. 

Kyle July 16, 2012

Kyle 7/16/12

Dear ettinger family,

Man i had to take like 15 minutes just to read about all the excitment going on back at home! holy cow!

congrats maren on being engaged!! i may or may not have shed a tear in the library!! ha and dad sure added the emotion when he talked about how he and the bishop have seen such a great change for the better in ames and I!! i cant wait to tell all my buddies that my sister is going to be married in december! its so crazy that this is actually happening!! AHHH!!!!!! haha man i am super hyper right now! i love this feeling!!

Because our car is still at the collision repair shop, we werent able to get to most of our usual appointments. We were however, able to get to two different less active homes, where one of them had an electric drumset! i was totally in heaven! i miss the drums so much!! he took some pictures of me playing, and also got a video that i will have to get to you guys sometime in the future.

Thanks dad for sharing the story about our future brother in law! Ha thats pretty funny that he talked to you about marrying maren during a rappelling trip! i'd have to say that was a smart idea, to talk to you about marrying someone you love so much, doing something that you and the family love so much! pretty awesome! i wish i could've been on that hike for sure!

Things are going well with my companion and i, we get along well, we have some really good laughs. I cant believe that this transfer will end in two weeks! (transfers are the 31st of july)

Thanks mom for sending out the drum equip. Brother k in the ward is really excited about it. And i am just happy to be able to help him out.

i am also giving my desk stereo speakers to another elder, and i scratched/destroyed and threw out some cds that i thought were uplifting, and thought should be approved, that i knew werent. i am doing all i can to become a more obedient missionary again. i only have 10 months left (in two days) and i NEED to have no regrets. The mission is to short to not serve the lord 100 percent.

I love all of you guys so much! and i hope everyone has a great week!! keep smiling!!

love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

just wanted to send you a quick picture of the damage of our car.

At least it was held on by packing tape for a couple days. ha

Ames July 16, 2012

Well it seems that this week has been pretty crazy for the entire Ettinger Clan, Pretty exciting stuff.

For the Ames section of the week.

We had our two Baptisms!!! they were both this last saturday and we just did one service for the both of them. It was so fun! its really exciting to see the people you teach make it all the way to the font. Loving the mission. We are going to be starting up on the new member lessons with the both of them and get them acclimated to the new life they are going to live. Awesome!

Also this week, actualy a couple hours after the baptism, we had a guy in the ward call us saying that a 18 year old girl contacted him in our appartment complex looking for the "Mormon guys". Turns out this girl used to meet with missionaries in the past and she just got into tucson and didnt have any place to stay. So we called the bishop, no answer, 1st counciler, no answer, 2nd counciler, no answer. great, what are we going to do. Called the Ward Mission Leader, he said it was too late to call anyone... Sweet. Growing up in the house that I did, especialy with dad as an example, i dont care if this girl is a member or not, she needed a place to stay and we were the ones she knew could help. We called a member that we are tight with who also lives in the complex and she and her husband met up with us and the girl. After talking about options and making a boat load of phone calls we got her a place to stay. She only needed a place for a couple nights until a friend came back into town. It was a really neat experience to be able to help this girl. She ran away from a terribul situation in california and you could see that she was super scarred and confused. And you could see it leave her face just a little bit when she had our help. She said "You guys are truly angels." What a blessing to be able to be a Miracle in someone elses life.

Next story: We had a new family at church today, it was their first day in the ward but their records havent been send over yet from the old ward, guess what the last names is... Ettinger!!! spelled the same way and everything. We got to talking and im pretty sure we have to be related, i got some names from him and ill send mom on a geneological mission this week :) Not gonna lie, we kinda look related too!

Next story: Like kyle, we had car problems yesterday, backed into a Jumping Cholla and smashed the side of the car real good, going to see the Vehicle Cordinator today, unlike kyles mission, we can loose our driving privleges for something that small. Time will tell! I was really worried yesterday, i dont like getting in trouble :(...

Next Story: We started teaching a family this last week. Our second lesson with them is tonight :D super awesome!

I think thats all i have for this week!

Hope all else is going great!

Love you all!

Elder Ettinger

Ames 7/9/12

So we have our two baptisms this week! super excited about it! The ward is really on board with it as well, so we should have a really great turn out :D This last week has been a really good one. Just really busy getting things all set up for the Program and what not. We are combining the two baptisms into one service so the ward can just show up once. Should be really great :D.

Im sad that i missed out on the hiking. I miss rappelling haha its fun that our family likes to do lots of outdoor things, there are alot of families that i have met that dont do a whole lot, they are missing out on alot of fun. Just think of all the hikes that we have been on that the average hiker doesnt go on and all the really pretty nature stuff we got to see that most will never see :D. Fun Stuff. Im excited to meet jake, he seems like a cool guy, however i dont think he knows what he has gotten himself into yet, he hasnt met the twins =). 

     Sad to hear about Aunt lois and bro Tullis. Lucky we have the knowlage of the Plan of Salvation, it really is a blessing that we have that understanding. I love being able to share that with people that we talk to who have recently lost loved ones.

     For P-Day today we are going to hit up a Sportsmans wearhouse :) super excited, we may hit up a couple thrift stores as well, we will see. We are also going to play the usual basketball with the zone.

     We also have interviews this week. Im excited for this one, in the past i have gotten really nervous for them, just because of my fisrt interview experience with President Walker, but President Killpack is really awesome and uplifting =). We will see how it goes.

     Not much else going on, just the baptisms. We are going to be doing alot of tracting and contacting this next week, so we can get some new gators to replace the two that we are getting dunked.

     Love you all tons and tons!

     God Speed!

Elder Ettinger

 

For the Young Men:

     You all have a great oportunity to serve as missionaries. Serving as a missionary will be the biggest turning point in your life. In the last year of my mission i have learned more about the Gospel, more about life, and more about myself than i ever did in the 19 years preparing for the mission. You may have fears about serving a mission, thats fine, but dont let those stop you from going out. By being a missionary we are able to help people come closer to Christ, and by doing so it brings us closer as well and we get to share the joy with our investigators. Im so greatful that i get to serve as a missionary, and im excited to see what the second year will bring into the picture. Two years really isnt much time at all.

I love you all,

Elder Ames Ettinger

 

Kyle 7/9/12

Dear family,

I totally forgot that you guys went and did the mystery hike! How many
miles is it? is there alot of hiking through the narrows?

This past week has been cool for a couple of reasons. We got to visit
with one of our less active families, and they are doing really good!
We are gonna talk about prayer with them next time we go over. They
know that they need to come back to church, they just seem to have
things get in the way alot.
we also taught a lesson to our investigator family, about the degrees
of glory. That was a really fun time.
the lame part about this week is that, elder lieske borrowed our car
this week, because we needed to use his truck to help someone move. He
was backing our car out, and turned to soon. and smashed our bran new
fixed bumper that we only had for a week!! I was really upset at
first, but i am over it now. last time it cost 1200 dollars to fix.
this time it is going to be 1800 to fix. Oh well

Mom, i cant really think of anything else i need right now. You can
just send some goodies with the drum pedal. p.s.. i told the member
that you were gonna send that out to me to give to him, and he lit up
and got way excited about it! So im also very excited to get it to him
whenever it comes.

Thanks for everything you guys do for me! your support is so great!
Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Note to the priests:
Hey there guys! Hope all is going well on your 50 mile hike!! man how
much i miss going out in the woods and goofing off with the quorum.
On my mission, i have really been able to see the spirit work through
me, to help other people. Something that i would reccommend over and
over to all of you guys, is to never do anything to lose the
companionship of the holy ghost. The spirit is what keeps us closest
to the straight and narrow path.
Another suggestion i have, that i may have said in the past, is to
Include the studies of the preach my gospel manuel into your regualar
scripture study. Something i wish i did more before my mission was not
just read, but study preach my gospel!
The lords work is the best work you can do! I wouldnt want to be doing
anything else in life right now, not even cutting grass at the ol'
golf course with bishop Cooper! And that right there is saying
something!! Remember to share your testimonies with your non member
friends. if anything, just be an example! God bless and god speed
guys! See you all in about 10 months! No time goes faster than the
time that you serve the lord!
Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger