Kyle - September 26, 2012

Dear Family,

 

Hey there everyone! How are things going back at home? How is the weather?

It is suppose to start cooling down here in the desert, It has been a super hot summer, and i really hope that we have a nice spring.

 

The past week has been the usual, we were able to visit with 7 different families this week! Which is quite a bit compared to what we have been seeing in the past. so that is pretty cool.

The picture that you sent of dad with his skin cancer removal was pretty intense! it reminds me of the time i had that deal taken off of my hand. People still ask me what the scar is from. I tell them to look up my facebook page, and they can see the hole in my hand.

Thats really cool that the chickens are starting to learn the ropes of life and what not. Not gonna lie, i am pretty excited to see there home, and get to know the names of all of them when ames and i get home.

Elder k and i are doing well, we are getting along, having a fun time. And life is just good!!

Because the work is so so slow here in the maple ward. We are talking with our mission president to close the maple area down for missionaries for a couple months. a.k.a the maple ward wont have any missionaries in there ward. Because no one is helping us with the work, our ward mission leader is never in contact with us. So we think that if we deprive them of the blessings of the missionaries being in there homes and ward. They may get there act together.

I am really getting excited for the marathon coming up this next month, what is the exact day of the race? so i can cheer from california. I am really excited to see how mom does.

Dad, i dont think it matters what you do, we already know that you will finish it, you've done it a million times. ha Just kidding, i wish i could be there to support both the parentals.

Next month on the 10th, we are having our second mission tour, which is when someone from the qorum of the seventy comes. We are having elder C. Scott Grow come. it should be fun, i wanna joke with him and say "so do you ever tell people to see scott grow?" ha

 

So why in the world does my bedroom become a laundry and sewing room?? That had better change when i get home. haha

The time keeps on flying by out here in the wonderful california desert!! I think we have about 247 days left....but who is counting right??

Mom, glad that you got the letter from me, hope you can get it to maryilan soon.

I cant seem to figure out how to spell her name.

 

I laughed when i heard that ames hasnt been smiling much. i thought to myself "If he was with his twin brother, that family would get mega annoyed of us!" man i cant wait to see my brotha again.

Thanks for all of the love and support that you give me! it sure means alot!

Everyone be safe and have a great week!!

Talk to you in a couple days, next monday.

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger

A rain suit Kyle found in his apartment.  Railroad workers wear suits like this.

A champion again

A baja bug we helped a member with

Things are on the climb - Ames 9/24/12

This last week was an Awesome one for the Tortolita ward! We found a new investigator! haha it was about time. He is in his 60's and we tracted into him while i was on exchanges with the zone leaders, so unfortunatly elder foster wasnt there to help find him, however we had another lesson with him on friday as well and Elder foster was with me for that one. This guy is totaly ready to hear the gospel, he says stuff like "Its a miracle that you came to my door that day" or "Im at the lowest iv been in my life." We are really really excited for him :)

We were also able to see a few less actives this week and continue to teach them so that was really awesome as well. Elder Foster is really easy to teach how to be a missionary, the MTC is doing even better than when we were there with their pre-mission training, Fun stuff!

Glad to hear that everyone is doing good. Im working on praying for everyone by name in my evening personal prayers, it helps me stay focused and helps me feel like my prayers are helping too :)

Today for P-Day we are going to be playing some dodge ball, super excited, pummling someone else with a ball really helps relieve the stresses of missionary work :)

Mom, i do smile all the time, sister c just likes to tell me that i dont, well, maybe i dont when im in the office because im usualy trying to get in and get out with whatever it was that i needed, and im not one to "Suck up" to the office staff like other missionaries. haha. But in my usual missionary work and with ward members im allways smiling and joking around. :D

Dad , my next temple trip is probibly going to be in november sometime.

Love you all so so so so so much!

Have a bomb digity week!

Elder Ettinger

Ames - September 17, 2012

So quick story to start my email this week: so totaly got into a bash with a guy on the way into the library today. thats an easy way to ruin a day haha. he argued that the book of abraham is a complete fraud and that makes joseph smith a fraud as well. he kept saying, "If you look on the internet..." haha what a great source of information.I tried to explain that that isnt what really matters anyways and that its that we all believe in christ and have faith in him. He then proceeded to tell us how we didnt teach people to have faith, repent, be baptized and recive the holy ghost... wait a minute, yes we do! he wouldnt listen though, i hate how he thinks he just did the world a favor.. pisses me off! gotta love the mission :)

So this week has been great, Elder Foster is a boss and we are working hard and having fun! I have come to find on my mission that when you are working hard, thats when you have the most fun as well.

We were able to see a bunch of less actives this last week, that cowboy guy i was telling you about last week came to church again yesterday, you can almost see the spirit rekindiling inside of him. Super awesome.

We had our visit from elder Ballard this last friday! it was really really awesome.We got to all line up and shake his hand. Elder Pikart (an area 70) and Elder gaye (from the quorm of the 70) also came to speak to us. They all focused on principles from Preach my gosple and how to apply them into our missions. it was a really fun time. Elder Ballard left time at the end for questions but i he never called on me :( i was really bumbed, It was really cool to be in the same room as an Apostle.

Just found out some super awesome news at the mission confrence! Im not sure if you remember or not, but when i was in Thatcher Elder Nordyke and I taught and baptized the Quarterback? Anywho, He just got his mission call to Uraguy and he will be leaving in January! WIN!!! Its stuff like this that makes missionary work so rewarding! I love it. Im going to talk to President Killpack at Zone Training this week to see if i will be able to go down for his fairwell. Im pretty sure that he will be ok with it. Super stoked.

I hope that you all are having fun times!

Love you all mucho!

Elder Ettinger

 

ps. Kyle and I hit our 16 month mark tomorrow! its going way to quick!

Kyle - September 17, 2012

Hey everyone,

 

Man sounds like everyone at home has a ton of stuff going on.

As you all know i got a new companion! and we are having such a great time!

Elder Koyle is from Burley Idaho! Cool huh? He worked on a farm back at home.

He is a really big jokester. So we have been laughing and having a good time, and

we are already really good friends! And it has only been 6 days.

 We had a pretty slow week, we were only able to see a couple people, but we were

challenged by our bishop to see/ teach at least 7 people this week. we are pretty excited

to start workin real hard. But have alot of fun at the same time.

Question: Could i get our address of the house we lived in, in burley? i wanna see how close i lived to elder koyle ha. Its fun being able to know someone that lived where we did. But we know nothing about the place.

So i realized last night that its already the middle of september. Has bishop shutdown the golfcourse yet for overseeding? I sure loved that time of the year! Lots of work hours!

 

Dad i will try and find some time this evening to write a letter to marilyn. ha i think it is funny that you reminded us who she was. Mom has been her friend for like 900 years! I dont think ames and i would ever forget her.

Thats nuts that there was a big flood out by the snowcanyon highschool. I will have to tell elder lieske about that. He lives in santa clara, and went to that school.

 

Mom, you made it sound like seth was getting home before alex leaves the mtc? did i read that correctly? Just kinda got confused there for a minute.

 

Well thats really about it for me this week.

I love my new companion we are getting along great.

we will for sure be friends for ever!

I love you guys! Always be safe in your activities!

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger

Elder Koyle and Elder Ettinger

The freeway near Hesperia

Kyle - September 10, 2012

Dear Family,

hey there everyone,

So as some of you might know it is transfer week! Elder k is going to be leaving the area and heading off to a new adveunture, while i will stay in the maple ward yet again and pick up a new missionary. My friend back in applevalley, elder p, he is getting transfered from the rancho Cucamonga stake down the hill. So i am REALLY hoping to be able to go down there and pick him up as my new companion. We will find out today which transfers i go to. either the one just up here at the desert, or the ones down the hill.

Thanks dad for the PT information, i read through some of it, and alot of it just went right over my head. So i dont know if i will persue that carreer father. I hope you understand ha

also dad, i am grateful that you got some use out of my eagle project while doing your physical fitness badge. How are those deacons doing these days?

So we were able to get a new investigator this week, but then he called us a few days later and told us that he moved down the hill at a moments notice. But he said he is going to find the closest LDS church and get in contact with the missionaries.

I am sorry mom that your knee is having some issues. I will pray as much as possible that you can have a smooth recovery, and be ready for your very first marathon!! Woo

Go Carrot!! ha

I am really looking forward to the next transfer. I decided that my new companion and i are going to have a transfer goal to get at least 200 contacts by the end of the transfer. That is just over 30 a week. which is super high for the desert, but i have faith that it can be done.

Well i am pretty excited to hit this next transfer with all i've got! Please continue to pray for me. I sure appreciate it.

Thanks for all of the love and support!

Keep having fun, and always be safe!

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger

Zone activity

Cool sunset

Kyle - September 4, 2012

hey Everyone,

 

Sounds like all is going well back at home and what not.

Time keeps flying by really quick.

Thanks for the package of goodies. Sure appreciate the random

things that show up in the mail. Its always fun.

I haven't recieved the letter with the ballot in it yet.

Our mission president said we are allowed to go online

and do a little research for the election if we have one of the ballots.

 

This past week we were able to help with 3 different service projects!

One of which was Trimming palmTrees. We were at the house working

and eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 11 hours! It was alot of fun,

but really good hard work.

 

Today we were givin a refferal for a guy that lives in our area,

he came to the church building right after our district meeting

and we were able to talk with him and get an understanding

of where he is at with religion and stuff.

We have an appointment to teach him tomorrow morning.

 

Yesterday for p-day we had a zone BBQ and also a talent show.

Elder w (the one that knows jake) and myself did a song,

while he played guitar, it was really fun!! Very nervous,but happy

to get  out of my comfort zone and not hide my talents under a bush!

I was really wishing i had my drums, i would've played those for everyone

 

Im sorry about your knee mom, i hope dad gets it worked out asap.

I have been having alot of back pain, and i always wish dad could be

here to help me out with it.

 

Dad, did you ever send the PT info in a letter at all?

I am hoping it gets here before transfers.

 

Random side note: I was looking at a map a few days ago, and found a street

named "Locke" that is down by our mission office, so next time i am down the

hill in rancho, i will try and swing down by it and get a picture.

 

I really miss kolob! i cant wait to be able to go back there, Maybe hike

boundry again who knows...

 

Thanks for everyones love and support!!

Have lots of fun and be safe!

Talk to you later

love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - September 4, 2012

Crazy that we are already at the last week of the transfer, they are definatly going alot quicker the further along we go. At the end of next transfer we will have been out for 17 months... Wow.

Good to hear from all of you, i didnt quite understand what all is going on at sunny slope, sounds like our logger doesnt no how to drive a tractor all that well, should have had one of the twins up there to run that dog. Plants grow back though, its the way the earth works. I hope all the parties involved have a possitive outlook on the situation.

So a couple weeks ago i was doing some family history at a members house for a little bit after dinner, i was using Ancestry.com i think? anywho, its really cool becasue when you enter in your ancestors information it will continualy search other peoples family trees and other information that matches what you have and suggest diffrent or new information that you can add if you think it is accurate, so one thing that I found that i think mom should look into is that the furthest Ettinger back, Ludwig Ettinger, may actualy be Luwis Ludwig Ettinger. There were about four or five other peoples trees with that as the name and only one other that had ludwig, but the information on his wife and birth dates and whatnot were all the same, so maybe look into it if you can, could lead to a break through :)

Elder Ballard will be coming to the mission next week, pretty excited for that, im sure he is going to have some awesome advice for our mission.

As a mission we had 30 baptisms this last week, more in one week than we had in a whole month in the past. Pretty sweet. Our mission is getting to "The next Level" that President Killpack keeps talking about. Its pretty cool. Im excited for this next transfer to start so that I can again refocus and put in another six weeks of missionarying.

I got moms package this last week, thanks for the cookies. :) ill keep an eye out for your letter, ill probibly get it today due to labor day if you sent it to my appartment, if you sent it to the office it may be after transfers, they hold mail when it gets close so they dont send it to the wrong address.

Not a whole lot else to report on that I can think of, We will see how transfers go this next week!

Ill be praying for you all!

Much Love,

Elder Ettinger

Ames - August 27, 2012

I feel like our emails as of late, well at least my emails have been super duper boring and really short, Sorry about that.

This last week was similar to the last few, but we were able to get into two new less active homes and visit with them, That was super fun.

One of them is this really old cowboy that does team roping in rodeos alot and so he is always busy practicing, but he really wants to start coming back to sacrament meeting so we may see him show up in the next few weeks. Being a cowboy he is way into guns and so next time that we go over there im going to ask for some opinions on a starting handgun and see if i can check out a few of his guns. Also, guess what Elder R and I just joined... CHOIR! haha Kim would be proud, It was really really fun to go to practice yesterday after church, all the member were really excited that we added two more men to the group. The music we are singing in two weeks is fun, really easy but it sounds really good already. There is a lady that is going to be playing a violin with the song as well :) She played in church a couple weeks back and it reminded me of mom and maren playing in church :) 

Super excited about tomorow, we get to go over to the Gila Valley and go to the Temple!!! really excited for that as well as the fact that my trainer Elder Sims moved back to Thatcher to go to the Commuinty college there, so he will be coming to our temple session as well and will chill with us at lunch afterwards :) Should be super fun :)

I finaly remembered to bring my camera, so here are some pictures from the past few weeks, Elder S (My DL) and I hiked to the top of this mountain to kill a few minutes before dinner, i say hiked but i really mean walked up a short road :). Also we got to mess around in a Tractor the other day haha. that was fun. And whenever there is some Lightning i have to get at least one picture, this one turned out really really well.

Not a whole lot else to report on for this week,

Love you all!

Elder Ettinger

 

Tractor fun

Awesome lightning photo

Kyle - August 27, 2012

Hey family,

 

So i am pleased to say that the past week was a little better than the previous.

We were finally able to teach a lesson to our investigator, she is so awesome!

She gets so involved with our lessons, she asks alot of good questions, takes notes, and assigns herself homework for the week! Its way cool! She had a baptism date in the past but we will be setting a new date this wednesday! i am super excited! my first time ever extending a baptismal date to someone! ahh!!

 

I am super jealous that mom went on that elephant arch hike...haha yea right! just kidding mom, ames and i are a little older now, and i think we'd enjoy the hike. It would be better on a dirtbike though. You know me.

 

I wish ames and i could've been on bikes while you guys ran in zion NP! I love that place so much! alot of people in my mission go to zion for memorial day and labor day and what not. I wish i could just go with them, and then come back to my mission.

 

We were planning on going camping this weekend with our ward. But we didnt have the miles to drive to the location. It was at a place called blue ridge campground in wrightwood. in the mountains, you can look it up if you'd like. According to the ward report yesterday, sounds like we really missed out. oh well.

 

Thats really sad that brother norton died this past week, i remember going over there with brittan all the time. Good memories.

 

Thanks for all of the love and support you guys give me! it means alot!

It kinda makes me happy that you helped pay for the mission out of our own accounts, now i feel like i've contributed something.

 

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - August 20. 2012

So i cant belive that we are allready half way through the transfer! its going by so fast!

This last week has again been pretty slow, the missionary work up here in the north is so diffrent than the rest of the mission. NO ONE IS HOME!

So we have been trying to find diffrent ways to go about doing the work, trying diffrent approches and diffrent types of finding. Its getting hard and frustraiting. Still loving life though, Ifs funny how even though missionary work is really hard sometimes and other times you just want to not wake up and yet im still rather happy. Crazy what happens when you are in the service of the lord.

This morning we went to play some Frisbee Golf, it was going to be super fun but the course we went to was totaly flooded out, super lame. So we played a couple holes that didnt have water all over them and then Elder B. threw a disc into the water! ha it was only about ten feet out so he waded into the trecherous deep to retreive it. haha it was some pretty stinky water :)

 So we wernt able to get onto the computers at the library that are an hour length, so we had to use the 30 min ones, so im gonna send this like this just incase i cant get back on,

Love you all!

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - August 20, 2012

Hey Family,

 

So This past week was probably the slowest in my whole mission, as far as the missionary work goes. We were only able to see one less active member the whole week, and our investigator was busy with doc. appointments. And wasnt able to meet with us.

But we do have an appointment set up with her on wednesday. So we are looking forward to that.

 

Sounds like the humidity in NC is a total bummer!! It rained alot this last week in Victorville. lots of roads were flooded out with mud all over the place. Made a good time In the little Toyota Corolla thats for sure.

 

I cant believe that ames and i only have 9 more months in the mission!! Super crazy!

We were talking with some other elders, and we all agree that we have been in the mission long enough. To think that the only place on earth right now. is the Cali. San Berdoo mission. Because we are pretty much surrounded by mountains. We feel like we are just stuck inside this place haha

 

Thanks maren for sharing the pictures with us ha. I showed Elder Werner. He laughed about it. Because he thinks its funny to see you and jake in the same picture ha

 

Thanks dad for sending the info on the PT stuff. She is a missionary, so i just showed her what you sent me. And she can either get permission to go on the internet site, or just wait for you to send some info to me. She appreciated it though. So thanks for sending that information.

 

Today for p-day we are going to be playing dodgeball at the church building. Should be pretty fun! We will may also be going to a glasses store for one of the other guys in our district to get some new glasses. Elder Troy Chambers. Remember him going to our school? its fun talking about the people back at home with him.

 

Thanks for everyones support and love!! It sure helps alot!

I keep all of you guys in my prayers, i am still getting use to

Including jake in my prayers. That may always seem different ha. no offense man!

 

Take care and have fun!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger