Ames - November 13, 2012

Good afternoon family!

its always good to hear from you all, obviously we are emailing on tuesday this week due to the holiday yesterday. I really dont like holidays on mondays, they are never fun.

But im glad that we are still able to email the next day.

We had our Stake Confrence this last week. In fact all 95 stakes in Arizona had confrence this week. It was a broadcast from Salt lake. We got to hear from President Eyring, Elder Holland, A sister in the primary presidency and also one of the Bishops from the presiding bishopric. It was a really really good confrence. I heard later from a member that Luke  (A Convert i taught in the Gila Valley) spoke at the adult session down there. He spoke on preparing for a mission. Super legit! When i found out the news i was so excited. Basicly makes the mission worth it. :)

This week was an ok week. Not a whole lot of immediate gratification but it helped us get ready for a super good week this week. We have one member of our ward setting up an appointment for us with a guy that has been working on their house. And we just got another referal form a girl down in central Tucson that has a friend that would like to meet with the missionaries up here. So we will be meeting with her this week as well. AND, we are planning on both of our investigators at church this next week, gonna be a really cool week :)

We only have three more weeks in the transfer, and then i will probibly be moving on to a new area, Bitter sweet really. I love this area so much and i have been able to see it grow a TON while i have been here. But its been a long road and im ready to see what else lays in store for the last 6 months of the mission. Its really crazy that we are already to this point. Kyle and i will be 18 months out on sunday... Crazy. haha, in kyles email to me this last week we talked about how we didnt think we were trunky at all and its actualy dad that is the trunky one haha. all in good time.

Thanks so much for all that you guys do for us!

Much love,

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - November 5, 2012

Dear Family,

 

This past week has gone by really quick!

Best news this week was that we got a new investigator on tuesday, and also had a second lesson with them two days later on thursday. He is and eleven year old boy who is a grandson of a less active lady in our ward. We will be teaching him every tuesday and thursday of each week until all the lessons are done. We will probably set a date with him next lesson!!

 

Sounds like everyone had a fun weekend with the marching band competition. I remember those days back in middleschool and beginning of highschool.

Dad you think i am getting trunky? That is a false statment. I just didnt want to pass up any money saving opportunities. Sorry if you got the wrong vibe from me making that purchase.

Thats super nuts that seth gets home this week?? what the heck!? i thought it would've been at least a few more weeks! his mission probably is the fastest i've seen it go for someone other than myself.

I love telling members about the ettinger farm back at home. i say "Yea once we left my dad wanted to become a farmer at random, and bought a bunch of chickens" kinda funny.

 

Halloween we went to our ward party, kind of a lame one thats for sure. So we just went back home and called it a night early. Not as fun as last year thats for sure.

Elder koyle and i are having a great time getting along well and having fun! Thanks for all the support and love! hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

 

Week of Festivities - Ames - November 5, 2012

well this week has been a super fun one, lots of festivities and events, let me start at the begining of  the week:

Monday:

Normal Pday, found a cool shirt at Khols that was super sweet and on sale for 8 bucks, cant beat that!

Tuesday: We had our ward Trunk-or-Treat, WAY fun, we dressed up as missionaries (Obviously) but people loved it haha. we had about 400 people attend :) Lots of members invited their friends.

Elder Foster and I decorated our trunk up as a monster, complete with smoke coming out of the nose! for a last minute progect and for just using cardboard and spray paint i feel like it turned out pretty well :)

Wednesday: Halloween! The day time was pretty uneventful, we got to see a few people. We had dinner with a really cool family in the ward and we stayed there for a while and played chinese checkers with the real chinese rules! (The member served his mission in hong kong) and then we played a really fun church history game that we play alot when we go over there for dinners.

Lots and lots of fun.

Friday: We had a Mission Leadership meeting, It was a tad bit too long, it started at 8:30 and we got home at 5:30. luckly they at least fed us lunch in the middle, and more than anything it was really fun to see some old buddies that i havent see for a long while. and the meeting was pretty good, but like i said, a little long.

Saturday: We had our Stake Barbeque on saturday night that was supposed to be a really big deal to invite your friends to but there wasnt a whole lot of inviting which was a little frustrating but we did have one cool story from it. One of the Young Women in the ward invited her friend to the trunk or treat and also to the BBQ. While we were chilling at the park we saw her and her friend from across the way and so i texted her and told her that she should invite her friend to meet with the missionaries, her reply was "Im one step ahead of you!" We texted a bit more and she said that he had to go and talk with someone so we told her that we could do it a diffrent night and we left, well, about a mile down the road she texts us again and said that tonight would be perfect, so we quickly turned around and we got back to the park and were able to teach him a mini lesson right there at the park and he commited to read and pray! super amazing! i love being a Missonary!

Its crazy that Seth gets home this week! What!?!?!?! it seems like he just left!

Dad i dont know what you mean about being trunky haha...

Thanks for all your love and support!

Much love,
Elder Ettinger

Ames - October 29, 2012

I cant believe that Halloween is already here! Just like kyle said, i can remember chilling in Picture Rocks last year at this time. And 18 Months in a few weeks! what!? It kinda just hit me the other day that we really dont have a whole lot of time left out here. Bitter sweet.

This week has been a pretty neutral one for us, we were able to see a bunch of diffrent people this week but it seemed like nothing happend. Even though it feels like something should have.

We have our trunk o treat on tuesday, we have really really pushed it as a ward to invite non member friends to it. We are planning on 350-400 people in attendance :) we already have a ton of members telling us about their friends who have confirmed that they will be there. so we are really excited about it. Also halloween itself should be fun, we have dinner with a really cool member and we are gonna stay there for most of the night because we arent allowed to be out and about. Should be a fun party.

Really excited to vote here in the next couple weeks, my voting location is in a catholic church next door to our church ha, should be fun to see the looks on the pollers faces when the mormon missonaries show up to vote.

We heard about that huge storm hitting the coast, its good to hear that maren wont be affected by it.

Mom, next time you get ready to send a package you should try to send a loaf of bread :) some nice homemade bread sounds super good right now :)

 also, i can only think of one member that ran the St.George marathon this year but i dont know her first name, her last name is roberts, maybe you could look up the last name with where they are from.. i dont know.

 Got a Package from the Larsens this last week, bunch of tasty goodies haha. i have something to snack on this last week of the month because im too poor to buy food haha.

Hope all else is going well at home!

cant wait for Maren and Jake to get hitched!

when will you be sending out wedding announcments? i better be getting one!

much love family!

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - October 29, 2012

Hello Family,

The weeks seriously feel like days! I cant believe that next month is gonna be our 18 month mark. Thanksgiving is already coming up, halloween in a couple days! I feel like i was just barely in applevalley doing all of this stuff last year! Nuts!

So dad mentioned that we only had six more months and to give it our all, well news flash, i am actually less active.... i havent gone to church for like 3 weeks now, and i am really just joking about this, and figured i'd give you a scare..

For halloween we have our ward activity which will have a chili cookoff, costume contest, and dessert contest! Its funny that mom mentioned dixie salad this email, because i've been wanting to make that SO bad!! are pomogranets in season right now? A couple members tell me "Get me the recipe and i will try and make it as good as your mom"

So mom if you could email me the recipe for the dixie salad that would be awesome! Thanks!

Elder Koyle and i were thinking about doing a "Cop-out" chili and buying a big pot from wendys fastfood and entering the contest! ha fun stuf, we arent allowed to dress up in costumes for halloween, so we were thinkin about using some temporary hair coloring stuff, and koyle would be a redhead, and i'd change my haircolor to brown, and we'd just be each other for halloween. you know, switch nametags. But we may not even end up doing that.

Sounds like everyone is doing well at home. Dont worry the next 2 months are gonna really haul the mail!! WEll, at least for ames and i ha!

One of the times Kim Nelson came to visit he brought austin, it was really fun to talk to him, And i mentioned that all of the fears of being a missionary leave once you start working in the field. He would be a really awesome missionary.

Thanks for everyones love and support!!

If anyone wants anything for christmas, let me know.

p.s..Maren, yours and jakes gifts are combined with your wedding gifts, i am not made of money, so i cant really do both. Hope you understand.

Ames, i'll maybe just send you a card...if that...haha! just kidding my brotha, but seriously, we dont even really need to get eachother stuff, as missionaries it is really easy to accuire lots of Junk.

Thanks again for the love!

talk to yall next week

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

P-day shopping?

Kyle - October 22, 2012

Dear Family,

 

So elder koyle and i are both staying together again for next transfer here in the maple ward. That makes me Tie my record in village ward for being in an area for at least 7 and a half months. i Like being in areas for a long time though. So i am super excited for next transfer.

on saturday we went out with our ward mission leader for 3 hours before dinner with his family. We hit 12 families and talked with 10 of them! All were invited to our ward halloween party on the 31st. We are hoping alot of them come on down to the church.

 

Sounds like you guys had a really neat fireside this last week. i alway wish that we can go to the youth stuff as missionaries.

We may start going to the mutual activities to help out the youngmen. This wednesday they are building model rockets for some rocketfest that they do in victorville. We are hoping that we can participate in that haha.

 

Thats way cool that the chickens are getting really big. I've been waiting for you guys to send a picture of the setup and what not.

Thanks for everyones love and support! you are all the best!!

Where is october going?? This is nuts!

Love you all,

 

Elder Kyle Ettinger

 

Ames - October 22, 2012

Its so crazy that its transfer week again. time just goes by so fast!

Elder Foster and I will be doing another transfer together here in Tortolita ward, Should be a good time.

This last week was pretty good. we were able to see one of our investigators a bunch of times and we were even able to catch some General Confrence Re-Runs on sunday with him :) Im really excited to stay here in tortolita, when im finished up i will have been here for 6 months! the longest that iv been in any area. We are hoping to get a couple baptisms before the end of this transfer. Its going to take some extra effort but its going to pay off :)

We just jumped on real quick so have a great week!

Much Love

Elder Ettinger

Ames's cool pumpkin he carved.