Kyle - 5/6/13

Dear Family,

 

First off, Congrats on the race last weekend! i am really proud of how well

both the parentals did! but of course 90% of the focus should be on my mom,

who is such an amazing woman! great job on finishing the 70.3! you are the

bomb! (Dad i am proud of you to! dont think that i am not...did i tell ya i loved ya

today?)

 

Thank you so much for the constant support while i have been serving out

here in the mission field. Something neat that we talked about at dinner last

night is that alot of missionaries back at home would say "oh on MY mission.."

but is it really our mission? No, its the lords mission! I am so happy and grateful

that i chose to serve a mission for our heavenly father, and our brother jesus christ.

I really cant believe that it is already coming to a quick close. It didnt really hit me

that i was going home next week till i arranged things with brother karatti to take my

things home, he said "elder Ettinger, the two years is already up? seems like i was

just dropping your bike off to you in your first area"... The time sure has gone quick,

and i've loved every minute of it! I wouldnt have been able to make it through the thick

and thin without the support of my loving family! i cant thank you enough!

 

Today is our last full pday in the mission field! Its really cloudy and has been raining

quite a bit, so we were thinking about going up and doing the etiwanda falls hike again.

My companion, and the two elders that we are hangin with today, have not done the hike,

so it should be really fun! (shout out to jake...one of which is john werner..BYU info? ha)

 

This coming wednesday i have my temple trip in the morning, and my departing president

interview in the evening at about 5pm. Then next sunday i have my departing dinner with the mission staff, and departing devotional after that. Then come next monday, i have about half the day to get my things ready and the assistants will be picking me up, and we all head to presidents home to have another dinner and talk with him. Tuesday morning i will be heading to ontario airport to jump on the ol plane to fly home! Seems like a busy week full of "Get your crap ready to go, and get outta here" type activities ha it will be really quick i am sure

 

I dont think i will be needing any money transfered for luggage. i plan on only walkin off the plane with my backpack. Brother karratti combined with kimberlis cousin, will be able to take my left over things home for me. It should work out really well as i have it planned out in my head

I should be able to jump on my email during the week once or twice in case anyone else has any questions.

Thanks so much!! love you all!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 5/6/13

Subject: 2nd Timothy 6-8...

⁶For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
⁷I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

⁸Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Thank you all for the love and support, i couldnt have done it without you.

Much love,

Elder Ames Ettinger

Congrats mom and dad on your race!!! im so proud of you guys.

yes im still thinking benjas,

and yes this will be the last email. ill be spending next monday packing and saying goodbyes.

Baptism this weekend. really excited to finish up the mish on a great note.

Cant wait to see you guys!!!!

much love,

Elder Ames Ettinger

Ames - 4/29/13

I cant belive that we only have a couple more weeks until we leave! its really crazy how fast time as gone by. Its been quite the ride and ive loved every bit of it. throught the thick and the thin.

We had an awesome lesson with our investigator last night and she is psyched on getting baptized on the 11th of may. Im really excited for her. She was really prepared to recive the gospel.

Good luck mom and dad on your IronMan this weekend! we will be cheering for you from three diffrent parts of the country. Pretty neat :) im excited to hear how mom takes first place :)

I thought that i mentioned it before, but i guess i must have forgot, i was able to get into all the classses that i wanted. and all the times that i wanted. registering was way easier this year. Im excited to start college again in the fall. :)

I hope you all have a great week!

much love,

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - 5/1/13

Hey there Family,

This past week and a few days was pretty good!

We did have out zone conference on monday, and i

actually enjoyed most of it! it was a really good last

zone conference in the mission. The topics were about

the book of mormon, repentence, and how we can be

better planners each day and week to be able to find

the "Seekers" of the gospel in our mission. pretty good.

Last zone conference i got moved out of my seat for talking

to much. this didnt happen this last week ha. So i must have

been paying more attention this time.

Really stoked to go fishing when we get back! i was just thinking

today. How are we gonna fit the 3 boys and dad on the little boat?

I feel like we are gonna be rockin and swaying the whole time we

are trolling around kolob?? Trial and error i guess. Maybe we could

upgrade to a sparkly Bass fishing boat? ha just kidding.

Good luck mom and dad on your race this weekend! hope all goes well!

i will be cheering you on here in california! As ames said, i am excited to

hear about moms experiences with her first ironMan, or we should call it

the iron Woman for her sake.

Sorry this email is a bit short and a bit lame this week. just prepping 

for departure. I have my departing temple trip and interviews next week,

and the departing devotional a week from sunday. Crazy to think that we

will be home really soon! The adventure is coming to a close! Through the

good times and the bad, i wouldn't trade my mission experiences for anything

else!

Love you all! thanks so much for the prayers and support!

Extra prayers will be given to those who mentioned them! 

Keep it real! and share your testimonies with everyone!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 4/22/13

Dear Family,

Hey everyone!! 

I am not gonna lie, i really dont have much to report this week...

we were able to go help give a blessing to an older lady in our ward,

she is so so nice and loving!! She reminded me a lot about grandma

and just how she was always so loving, soft, and gentle all the time!!

i am so very excited to be able to meet my other grandparents when 

we head on up to the spirit world! its gonna be awesome!

Thats crazy that katelyn is getting married soon!! everyone is just growing

up! who is she getting married to? i dont remember anyone named jessica 

that was in the MTC while we were there. That was almost 2 years ago haha

the mission that perry is in was somewhere in Ghana. I know that his mission

split into like three seperate ones since he has been out. but i know that it

is there in ghana somwhere. Look it up on google maps or something haha.

i remember meeting hazels brothers when they visited that was really fun!

Good times! 

Good to see that the ward is gonna be getting more greenhouses! they should

make it a church commandment that everyone needs to grow a garden to help

out there neighbors and friends that are non members. That would be a really good

finding activity. haha. its the comments like that, that make me see that i've been

thinking like a missionary for so long now! ha

love you all so much!! just to think..we may only have 2 more chances to email

before we get home...pretty crazy!!

Have an awesome week everyone! keep working hard and having lots of fun!!

love, Elder kyle Ettinger

Ames - 4/22/13

I dont know about you guys but emailing is getting harder and harder. haha.  i feel like we basicly report on the same thing each week.

its all good though, ill see ya in a few weeks haha.

Things are still going really well here. im super excited to leave this area much much better than how i found it.

We will be having a baptism here in the next few weeks, it may even work out that it will be on the last saturday of the mission, that would be

pretty neat i think.

happy late birthday dad, i forgot to mention that in my last weeks email. I hope you had fun!

So just curious, When is the Pine Creek trip planned for? Just need some dates so i can maybe fill one of those extra tickets.

mom, could you do me a huge favor and set up an Eye doc appointment for that first or second week back. My glasses are in need of replacement. They are pretty scratched up. haha. i appriciate it.

Today for Pday we are going back up to the mountains and having tin foil dinners again. we are going to a new spot though so it should be pretty fun.

 I hope you all have an awesome week!!!!!

 much love,

Elder Ettinger

Ames - 4/15/13

Soudns like you guys had a great week! glad to hear that.

We went over to the grahams last night to visit and they said they had a really good time talking to mom. Brother graham was impressed with the fish tank and sister graham was impressed with mom being so fit haha. they are great people.

This week was pretty good. taught a bunch of lessons to our investigators and less actives, the area is doing so well. We had ward council yesterday and we are planning on having a member missionary class at the begining of may to help inspire the members. its going to be based off of the book, "The power of an everyday mission" by Clayton c. Christiansen. You guys should get a copy of it, its amazing! I would like a copy to for when i get home. so if you see it while you are at deseret book snag one. All the procceds go to the general missionary fund of the church. So you cant go wrong there.

We are down in the Gila valley today. Elder j has not been feeling super good for the past four weeks so we came down the see the doctor. i always like coming back to this place to visit. fun times.

So im glad we got the talks all arranged. i have been telling some friends back home that i was going to be speaking on the 19th, so im glad i can start circulating the correct date to those who may have to travel. No worries though.

I hope you have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - 4/15/13

Dear Family,

thanks for the emails this week! always fun to hear whats going on.

our past week wasnt very eventful, we were able to teach a couple less active lessons. We went to a stake meeting, and found out about a cultural celebration that will take place a week before we get home. We are required to be there for both nights that they have the show. its like a dance presentation. it should be pretty awesome!

Happy Birthday last week maren! glad to see that your trip to disneyland was awesome! just to think that you were only like an hour away from me when you were there! pretty legit!

mom i am still proud of you for how hard you are working for the race that is coming up! i especially keep you in my prayers that you will do really well! No worries, you are a champ mom!

i have not received my own flight info yet. But thats funny that i will be getting home pretty late in the afternoon. I guess that means i wont have to leave super early in the morning from the mission home. which is what most of the missionaries have to do when they leave.

Things are going alright here in the mission. Really not much excitement going on as far as the work goes, which is a real bummer, but i am doing what i can to stay busy.

thats crazy that we are getting a new stake president! Watch it be doctor locke ettinger haha. just kidding. Seems like pres. lyman has been in there for ever!

today the weather is super nice! overcast right now with a little rain here and there. We are gonna hit up the frisbee golf course today! super stoked about that! ha I'm such a dork

thanks for all the love and support!

hope everyone has an awesome week!

be safe and have fun!

love, elder kyle ettinger

Photos from Kyle - 4/9/13

Elder Kyle Ettinger and Elder Morgan

Elder Ettinger and Elder Jackson

Kyle - 4/8/13

hey everyone,

Not gonna lie i really dont have a whole lot to talk about this week, this email may

be a bit short.

i enjoyed the conference this time! i really should've payed more attention during some

of the talks, but i have found that i have a really hard time not talking to friends when

my mom isnt there to tell me to shut my mouth ha. Sorry mother.

I am very suprised that no one mentioned anything about there being an 

announcment about the Cedar City Temple.

right before they started announcing the new temples i leaned over to a 

friend and said "St,george city 2nd Temple" and then he announces Cedar,

and i was like "Well it might
as well be st george 2nd" haha it was really funny!

im stoked to have another temple close by! we are so spoiled!

It was really fun to talk to everyone on moms birthday! glad that you enjoyed

it to!! Happy birthday to maren this week! Hope you have lots of fun at disneyland!

i am super duper jealous about that!! haha, i understand that you cant come visit though

it would have been super fun, but its alright! we can look forward to may 25th! woo!

thanks for the love and the prayers!! May the work continue here in the Hillside ward!

love you all

Love, elder kyle ettinger!

Companion from Jerome, ID

P-day hike

Ames - 4/8/13

Confrence was AWESOME! probilby my favorite confrence of all time!

Dads thought was very accurate about the fist pumping haha. there were quite a few talks on missionary work, loved them all!

Durring one of them our Ward Mission Leader texted us and said "This is what our ward needs!" i hope that the ward was listening to the spirit of those talks.

Talking to you all was loads of fun on friday! Sorry that i lost service and didnt get to say bye. It will be fun to swap all the fun stories in the family room.

 So i promise that this is not a joke or an April Fools... My companion can even testify to the truthfullnes of what im about to write...

The night before confrence i turned to Elder Jones and said, They are going to announce the Cedar City utah temple tomorrow, thats my guess"

And then just before the announcement i also re announced this to the family that we were watching confrence with. Im guessing that i dont have to tell anyone how

this proved to be Prophetic ;) I did have a little tiny bit of insider knowlage but i still made the guess...

Im  excited to get into this week, we have alot of awesomeness planned out. The area is doing SO much better now than it was when i got here. It makes it so much easier to focus on the work when there is work to do :)

Not a whole lot else to report for the week.

Thanks for all your love and support!

Much love,

Elder Ettinger

Ames - 4/1/13

The only joke that i pulled today, and will continue to pull, is telling the members that im getting transfered back to tucson. We went and got our hair cuts at one of my favorite members here and i told them that i was getting transfered and they were so bummed. Unfortunatly the dad called me out pretty quick on the fact that it was April 1st. Darn. Im going to try it a few more times if i see members throught the day.

My reaction to dads email... Pissed! I turned to elder J and explaind the crazyness that happend. This is what i was thinking. "Why would dad go shoot my gun without asking? why would he think that it would be ok to shoot it when he knows verywell that i havent got to shoot it yet. Wouldnt he think that i want to shoot it first? does he know that that gun has NEVER been shot? haha." As i started reading i didnt really mind that dad got it out and was looking at it and what not. A little quirked because there is stuff in that suitcase that i didnt want you guys to see yet. (Little surprises) but then when i read that dad and clyde took her out... Whoa! Not happy! haha. We will have to go shooting the minute i get home!

This week was an awesome week to end the transfer on and to usher in this last one. We had a couple lessons with investigators, 7 lessons with less active members and 5 lessons with active members (We count those in our mission now.) And we got a new investigator that asked her member friend what she needed to do to be baptized!!! hurray! So with her and a couple others we are hoping for three baptisms by the end of april or for sure by the end of the Transfer. Im excited!

One of our less active lessons this week consisted of Gold panning. Remember how dad kyle and i tried doing some panning in california. and dad was the only one that got anyting. Im suer kyle and i got fed up and impacient so im sure thats why we didnt find any. Well elder j found two flakes and i got one. Today we are going to a new panning spot to get some "Pay Dirt" and pan it for pday. Hoping to get rich quick!

im excited going into this last transfer of our missions. Its been an awesome ride andI have learned a ton!

I hope everyone has a great week, and Mom have an awesome Birthday!! I hope dad surprises you with something cool!

Thanks for all your love and support!

Elder Ettinger

 

Kyle - 4/1/13

Dear Family,

First things first, transfers!!! man i seriously cant believe that we are already getting to our last transfer as missionaries! i know i say it in almost every email! but where has the time gone?

i will be staying in the hillside ward for my last transfer, my companion elder m will be leaving though. making my last 4 companions. only 6 week companions. Its kinda fun that way because i get to meet more people.

Elder m was called as a DL, i am super excited for him. This will be the first time that he is senior companion. Also, two elders staying in my zone were called as district leaders. i am pretty positive that i will be released as a DL. But i am more than willing to help my new district leader if this is the case.

Happy April everyone! April fools right!? i didnt pull any pranks on my companion this year. i dont think i did last year either. i dont remember.

Funny story though, last night i went to bed, and of course took my glasses off to sleep, i put them safely in my glasses case, on the bookshelf next to my bed. I went to sleep, during the night, about 4:00 AM, i woke up...Wearing my glasses!!??... i was like, "i swear i took these off!?"... i put them away (again!) and fell back asleep.In the morning, i put them on and got up. i saw that my lenses had couple finger prints on them. I am very convinced that i put my glasses on while i was sleeping!! very weird! ha but really funny as well. i've been telling that story to my missionary friends all morning ha

My brother Ames, APRIL FOOLS sucka!! Dad sure schooled you on that one huh!? we would like to assure you that dad and clyde didnt go out and shoot your gun, but i do request that you let us know what your reaction was to dads story haha i got a good laugh out of it! hope you did as well... now that you know it isnt true.

Mom, thanks for working on setting up the trip for brother k to get my stuff home. i have also been talking to elder b about coming down to pick up some of my stuff as well. He says he should be able to, unless his school finals get in the way. So i'm sure that brother k could get some of my stuff, and maybe the last few things elder b could take home for me. I'm sure it will all work out one way or another.

Happy birthday this week mom! hope you have a really great day! I always forget what year you are turning. i always remember dads. But i still feel like you will always be stuck in the 40's somewhere. i've always thought that as a kid. Each year dad gets older, mom stays the same. maybe it is because dads hair is getting more ground pepper like haha.

Thanks for everyones love and support! its so great! you are all so awesome!

i love you all so much!! keep having fun and be safe!

love, elder kyle ettinger

Ames - Spring Break is not all its cracked up to be - 3/25/13

This week was a total bust for us, spring break really killed us. All of our solid investigators were out of town, and alot of the normal less actives we work with too were gone. Just like kyle said, our Zone leaders wernt too happy about it either. They live two hours away from me so i dont really expect them to understand. Its whatever i guess.

I agree with kyle, iv been looking forward to flying home the whole mish, having to sit in a car for 7 1/2 hours to get home doesnt sound at all fun when we could just drive from the air port in STG 5 min to the house. There will be oportunities to come vist the mission with you guys pretty easily. Hope thats cool with everyone.

This week is going to be alot cooler than this last week. We are planning on extending some baptism dates this week that we have super high hopes for. It will be toward the end of april so just before we bounce on home. Pretty excited :)

Today for pday we are heading up to the mountains, going to be making some good ol fashion tin foil dinners! going to be pretty fun. Going to play some frisbee and burn stuff in the fire.

Mom that reading on burmuda grass sounds pretty interesting haha. find any cool tips or tricks?

So there is a member here that was telling me about metergist internship that the mine does. It is just for the summer and pays really good. Like i calculated about 9000 just for the summer. Im thinking that ill look into it for the summer of 2014. He said the mine likes to take students that are in the middle of their schooling so that they dont feel obligated to hire any of the interns. Pretty intreging. Ill look into it more when i get home.

Also, iv got my school schedual for the fall pretty much layed out, they posted the fall classes on the website so iv been checking those out and have got all the classes lined up pretty good. Registration is on april 10th for me so thats when ill add my classes. There are a few classes that im not sure on so ill just end up doing some changes when i get home but im going to jump in the classes while i can get in.

 Pretty excited to finish up strong here in clifton. Everyone loves reminding me how long i have left though, thats not too fun. Whatever though.

Hope you all have a great week!

6 more emails after this one!!!!!!

much love,

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - 3/25/13

Dear family,

Thanks for the emails this week! its always fun to hear about whats been going on back at home.

just to start this off, i would like to say that i dont seem to be much of a fan of a road trip to arizona right after my mission. i am really looking forward to flying home, so i think you could call up my office and let them know that i would like to go ahead with the flight plans. Hope that doesnt make you guys to upset.

This past week was pretty uneventful, my favorite part was being able to work on cutting up

a huge 16 foot bush, down to 6 feet. We worked on it for about two and a half hours! It really

took me back to the golf course. i really enjoyed myself alot. The member we worked with

was really appreciative for our work that we did.

i am getting really bored of being a district leader, our zone leaders only focus on the things

that went bad each week, and its really getting on my nerves, So i may ask to be released

as a district leader for my last transfer. We will see what happens i guess.

i have an interview with president godwin this next week for renewing my temple

recommend, i am really excited about that. I enjoy the times that i get to spend

with my mission president, He is a really good guy.

Its cool that he has a retirement home in st george, so i may run in to him every now

and then.

Parents, dont get filled up with hot air about being so "popular" haha i laughed when i read that part. thats cool that you are being recognized for your great efforts! keep working hard and training well! i am so proud of my parents! 

Sorry i dont have to much to report about this week. something else that happened was that,

yesterday we were asked to not come to the ward council and P.E.C meetings anymore, this

is the first ward that has decided to not let the missionaries come to those meetings, i think

its a stupid idea to not let us come. thats the main way we knew of people in the ward that were struggling a little bit, that we knew we could give an extra boost to. oh well.

Thanks so much for all of your love and support! i cant believe that march is coming to an

end pretty soon! seems like we were just barely in February! what the heck?

have an awesome week and keep having fun!

love, elder kyle ettinger

Kyle - 3/18/13

Dear family,

Thanks for the birthday wishes, sure appreciate it.

My birthday was spent helping a family move out of one of the wards

in our stake. it was one of those moves that the family wasnt ready to move

out, we had to help box up all there stuff, and there house as mom would say 

was a "pigstye"! Lots of garbage all over.

We helped from 11 to 2 in the afternoon, when we told them we had to leave,

they thought we were just wanting to not help anymore, though that was partially

true, i didnt want to spend all of my birthday in frustration, working hard to help

them move, while they stood around and didnt help much. Life goes on.

We baked the cake on the 16th at a missionary friends appartment, then

finished up the frosting last night. We took a few pictures but i didnt really

do anything exciting. mission birthdays are just so close to normal days.

Thanks for the birthday gifts! i loved all of it! i was laughing quite a bit while

opening up things.

Maren and jake, thanks for your things as well! i got the package on the 16th, 

but we got home late at night, and the office holding the package was closed,

so i got to open your stuff sunday morning. thanks again! stoked to fly my

ninja turtle kite!

Sounds like maren isnt very good at flying kites huh? Why would you fly winnie the pooh into the tree? thats really not very nice mare bear!! haha

Sorry its a little short today, i gotta give my companion a turn on the ol computer,

thanks for all the love and support!

Good luck working in the yard and getting some cool projects done.

Love you all

love, elder kyle ettinger

Ames - 318/13

This last week was a pretty awesome week!

Pday we did all those awesome hikes / exploring. Lots of fun. We were all super tired the next day though haha.

later that night we had a lesson with our investigators. It was a really hard lesson to give because we were so stinking tired haha. The Kids are fun though so it was great.

Tuesday we had Zone training is Silver City. It was really good. We had some really good trainings by President and Sister Killpack and the Assistants.

Long day though, We Left at 8 in the morning and we got home at 630 where we went strait to dinner and then strait to a lesson with our investigators and then strait home to bed :)

Wednesday was a chill day, i got sick tuesday night and so we just stayed home all day so i could recover, im glad i did too because i got better pretty fast. Im still kinda congested but dont have the major sinus headaches.

Saturday was the best day of the week :) 21!!!! I cant belive that we made it haha. We did some service in the morning that took up the morning and into the early afternoon. Mom wont be excited to hear that i got FRIED! haha. For some reason i just cant remember to put that sunscreen on! oopsies.

After service we went down into clifton and went to "Grannies attic" its a thrift/ old stuff shop. I bought myself an old Poloroid camera :) i was expecting to pay about 15 -20 bucks for it but when i took it up to the counter and asked how much they wanted for it she said 2 bucks! score!! So that was my Birthday gift to myself. Later that night we had a surprise birthday party for a member of the ward whos whole family was in town. It was super fun. It turned into a double birthday party. They surprised me too with my own cake. Lots of fun. One of the best birthdays ever!!!

The work here in the boondocks is starting to pick up! pretty exciting. Its been a long haul since the day i got here but its getting easier to keep busy during the days. Loving missionary work :)

Hope you all have an awesome week! much love,

Elder Ettinger

Ames - Clifton Cliffs - 3/11/13

Catchy subject line eh? haha.

This last week has been a pretty good week for us. We had a lesson with two of our investiagors and we were able to see a few less actives as well. Kind of a slow week.

The best part was though, wehn we got to church on sunday we wernt really expecting anyone to come, we hadnt seen one family for a couple weeks and the other gators usualy go to mesa on the weekends to their other house. (Kinda annoying when you want them to come to church). BUT! we got to church on sunday and three investigators showed up AND three less actives! super awesome! Its great to know that the efforts that you are making truly help people :) love the mission.

So the reasoning for the subject line is becasue we went base jummping for p day today... jk. we went up some really cool canyons. One of them we found a bunch of black dirt in a few places so we packed some of it out and we are going to pan it for some gold! Pretty excited. The other canyon that we went up is called the Lemon Squeezer. Its a slot canyon that you have to climb up a ton of places, Kinda like the stuff that we would down climb on Pinecreek or Birch hollow. Loads of fun. The duncan Elders came up to join us.

Iv already talked to my mission president about getting on the same plane home. He told me that since kyle leaves on a tuesday that would mean i would miss a bunch of stuff in the mission home and what not. I think it would be kinda cool to come home on the same plane but at the same time i would like to do the mission home dinner/ testimony meeting with all my MTC buddies. Ill see you guys for the rest of my life, but some of these guys i may not see again. Thats just what im thinking.

Im really excited for my Birthday on saturday. We are going to be doing service with some of my favorite members here. We are going to be tearing out a wall in their storage building and adding in a garage door. Also i have dinner that night with another favorite family. Should be an awesome day. I cant belive that kyle and I are 21! I remember our 13th birthday, we got the Incredibles movies and some xbox games. I remember kyle and i got into some dumb argument (Which im sure i was right) and Greg Mickelson said "Looks like they are arguing like teenagers already!" haha. Good times.

Thanks you guys for the love and support,

Dont get too trunkey now ;)

Much love,

Elder Ettinger 

Kyle - 3/11/13

dear family,

Thanks for the emails this week! sounds like all is going well back at home!

Maren i hope you get feeling better soon if you havent already. Being sick is so lame!

I got over my cold last week, but i think my companion is getting one now.

We are taking our car into the shop this tuesday, from when the elders got in a 

car accident last january. The insurance finally approved the work to be done.

we are hoping to get a replacment car for that time, but if not, i dont mind being

on bike for a little bit.

the little primary boy reminds me of how chaotic ames and i were in primary,

haha oh ames and i were such mischievousness boys!!

I am really excited to get back to the golf course, thats funny the comment that

mom made about the whitings. I hope they havent made to many changes to the

course without me.

ames and i have talked about trying to fly home on the same day. I havent had

a chance to even ask him about it yet.  We will see what happens i guess.

it would be legit to come home on the same day. and on the same flight, but if it

doesnt work out. i'll still be happy to be home again haha i think ames would agree.

We are doing so much to try and get the members more involved in member missionary

work, they are just all so much older, and have like zero motivation. But we are praying

to try and visit specific active families, who are prepared to talk to there friends and 

neighbors about the gospel.

i love being a missionary so much! i cant believe how fast the time has gone! its really crazy!

i love you all so much, sorry not much going on this week! hopefully i will have some awesome

miracles to send next week.

we are going bowling for the pday activity today, should be a good time. i havent been for over a year

now. Since being in the rialto zone.

So stoked for my birthday this saturday!

Happy birthday ames!! hope its a good one!

i got permission to go over to rialto to have dinner with the

squires. they are the ones who dropped off my comforter and fishing reel

to the parentals last year. He grew up in st george. And they also fed me on

my birthday last year. Should be a good time! 

i love you all so much! and hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 3/5/13

Hey mom and dad, so im just going to email everyone separate today, change things up a bit ya know?

 

Glad to hear that dads Dissertation went well!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hear the phone calls already, "Is Doctor Lockeee Home?" hahaha

 

my Weeks been good. we got to start teaching some unbaptized children this last week and had a second lesson with them yesterday. they are super fun kids and the family is cool too. Both the parents served missions so we talk mission stuff all the time.

Whenever people find out how long iv been on my mission they get all excited that i only have a few months left. Its sad! ha. I wish that I would have just lied from the first day i got into the ward and just said like 10 months or something. People in AZ especialy like to say  "oh, your on the down hill slope" I think i have heard that a thousand times. haha.

.... there is a lady that is arguing with the librarian about some dumb time limit on the computers and i cant concentrait or even think haha....

ok she finaly left.

.................

Other than that there isnt a whole lot that i would need out here. plus i dont want to just have to turn around and have to bring it back home in a few months. Whatever you think is best though.

So my mission secratary called and told me George was wanting to come visit. I was sad that we wernt able to meet up.

Hope all is going well for you.

Im excited to see you soon!!!!!!!

elder Ettinger

Kyle - 3/4/13

Hey family,

This past week was alright, we tried to do alot of visits with less active families, but not a whole lot of people were home.

This past week i met two different sets of twins. Both were older guys in the ward, it was fun to talk about twin stuff

with him. our young mens leader in the ward was a twin, and his brother was in active in the church. it made me really

confused, i couldn't ever imagine my twin brother being way strong in the church and me not ya know? we are the same

person on in inside, well DNA at least. Why wouldn't both be active in the church? kinda funny to think about.

Both of those twin brothers are way in to collecting cars. one of there sons name is kyle, and he plays the drums, 

thought that was funny because the drummer in my last ward, his name was kyle as well.

There are also a total of 4 youth named kyle in this ward. the irony is just funny to me.

Elder m and i are getting along well, we are trying to really build the ward trust, basically what i've done my

whole mission. But i am okay with it.

Dad good job on the ol' defensive end of your work. Did you hold back the line well? i feel like you would be playing

football, not presenting a report to someone ha. But i  really am proud of you! you are so awesome dad!

i actually have been givin some thought towards agriculture/landscaping. 

its crazy to think that it is already march, and that i will be 21 in two weeks! My missionary friend elder kyle c

(lots of kyles in this email) his birthday is next sunday. So it'll be fun to celebrate with him.

I really cant think of any birthday requests. i think if you just send a few things that is fine. but maybe it would

be better to save the gifts and ames and i can get them once we get home. we are trying de-clutter before going home

in a few months.

thanks for the love and the prayers! it means alot to me! i am so stoked to see you guys again! 

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 2/25/13

Dear Family,

man everyone is freaking out not knowing where i went! i hope to get transfered again just to make you all wait and learn patience! ha just kidding

So i was transfered to the rancho cucamonga zone! which is obviously down in the valley I am serving in the hillside ward! it is a really skinny but super long ward. it is about 1 mile wide and almost 4 miles long. We also have a car in this area. But like usual, i always get put in car areas, where the car has problems. The whole rear end was crushed last month, and we will probably be on bike for a week or so next week when the car is taken to the shop. its whatever though.

 My first thoughts for why i was transfered here is because i need to work on being humble. i noticed that i am coveting everyones cars in this ward! Our bishop has a mustang GT 500, our ward mission leader also has one. And a few other members i met have some really sweet classic cars. i am obviously in the most rich area of our mission now! its actually really awesome! First couple hours being in my area we passed a lamborghini in a parking lot.

Something i like about our car is that we have a bluetooth radio in it. so whenever we get phone calls we can answer it through the car. super fun! im pretty sure moms car at home can do that to.

Dad Good luck tomorrow with your defending disertation! i will for sure pray extra hard for you!

Funny small world moment. The first person i met in the ward, doing service for an older lady. use to live in st george, his brother lives in Bloomington hills as well. i dont remember his name though. Also, the older lady that we helped out, use to live in clifton where ames is serving. What the heck? ha pretty funny

My new companions name is Elder M, he is from springville UT. He will be out 12 months in two weeks or so. His trainer was elder q, my companion a few months ago. the Connections in the mission are so funny sometimes.

Random note that mom will enjoy, we live about 5 minutes away from the ONLY trader Joes in the mission. mom do you have any requests??

So the mission news, like mom said, the san bernardino mission will no longer exist as of july 1st. We are losing the Rialto, Fontana, and San Bernardino zones to the new redlands mission, but we are also getting the Chino stake that is gonna be the most south west part of our mission. We were also told that the missionaries serving in the 3 zones that we are losing, when the july 1st transfer hits, will automatically change missions! super sad! i am kinda glad i wont be here when that happens, because splitting up from my friends would be pretty lame!

dad i am super happy to hear that you talked about the church with the guy on the plane! i am so excited to be able to do more member missionary work once i get home! it will be pretty awesome!

Well i think that is about it! thanks for everyones support and love! it

means so much to me! i am doing well in my new ward! and loving the area quite a bit!

Have an awesome week and we will talk to ya next week!

love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 2/25/13

So, it snowed here in Clifton this week as well, actualy it snowed twice. Being here in arizona has made me super wimpy when it comes to the cold. The days it snowed were so not fun. IT was really cold and really windy which made it seem all the colder. Not fun. We had to go to Tucson this week and the whole way up there was at least two to three inches of snow on the sides of the road. That is very not normal for here. Iv done that drive tons of times on the mission and im used to seeing it just brown with some shrubery here and there. Not all of this gross white stuff ;) The only good thing snow can be used for is Snowboarding. Thats it. No acceptions to the rule.

This week was a pretty good one for us. Taking over areas is never fun for me. You have to piggyback the whole area until your new companion knows enough to give some valid input. So thats been a little tough but iv done it four other times so the fifth shouldnt be so bad. We were able to teach our investigators a lesson this week. They dropped their Baptism date though :( Honestly they werent really ready for it anyway so we are just going to keep working with them and see if they will be prepared in a month or so. They arnt making the Gospel a priority and not keeping commitments so they arent going to recieve an answer until they do. So we will see. In better news though, we had two different families this week talk to their home teachers or visiting teachers and request that the missionaries come by to help them. One is a less active and the other family has two unbaptized children that we will be teaching :) Its really awesome when the lord blesses the area with things like this that just come out of the wood works. So this next week is going to be super awesome! Sad news though, There were a couple companionships in our mission that alone had higher key indicators (Numbers) than our entire zone!!! ha, no one really knows what happend, i think its because every companionship in our zone got a transfer call last week so everyone is taking over areas. Im sure we will go back up.

Glad to hear that all is well back home!

Good luck to dad on his Dissertation defence!

Much love,
Elder Ettinger

 

ps.  ♪♫ Where in the Mission is Elder Kyle Ettinger ♪ ♫ (To the Tune of that Carmen San Diego game :) Maren should at least get the reference)

Ames - 2/19/13

Well we had our transfers this week, and we lost Elder Phillips here in the Clifton ward. It was a sad day. Elder Phillips and i got along really great, we got into aruguments just about every other day but it really helped take the tension out of our companionship so we could work better together the rest of the day. It was fun. Im super pumped that i didnt get transfered, i wasnt expecting to get moved but you never know in this buisness. By not being transfered i pretty much solidifyed my staying in the area until i finish up and head home. Im really excited to stay here. lots of great people and there is so much history here. A member took us out to breakfast this morning to say goodbye to Elder Phillips and he told us of an area that the Chinese people used to live at (Back when there was major segregation in the United States) apparently you can go hujnting for old bits of pottery and chinese coins. We are going to get some more information about it and see what we can dig up :)

My new companion is Elder J. He has been out for 14 months. Thats about all I can tell you about him at this point haha, We have only been companions for about two hours. if that. He seems like he is a really good missionary. He is from the rural parts of Idaho so he will fit in really good here in the rural of AZ. Should be fun :)

Here are a couple pictures from the last little bit, The owl lives in an old run down abandoned cotton gin, super fun to explore, its in Duncan. And the other one is of a sign in Duncan :) I dont feel like it needs too much of an explanation.

Im really excited to start up the new transfer, we are going to tear up these little towns!

Thanks all for the love and support,

Elder Ettinger

Kyle - 2/18/13

Dear family,

Man this transfer has gone by so fast! but the last week was deffinatly the slowest of the whole thing. knowing that transfer calls come at the end of the week doesnt really help that at all.

So elder kyle ettinger is finally being transfered out of the maple ward!! i was not suprized but really hoping to stay in this ward for the last two transfers of my mission. I was also called last night and asked to be a district leader again. i am excited to be able to help out more missionaries than just my companion again. Thats what i love most about being a DL, being able to help more people be happy.

i was asked to give the opening prayer in church, i said i would. Then about cried when i was walking off from the pulpit, didnt want my last sunday in the maple ward to ever end.

Then to top it off, some of the primary wrote me "we will miss you" cards. 

i feel like i am leaving from my home ward right now! its been really hard! But i am excited for new adventures.

Lots of missionaries have been telling me lately how they look up to me alot, for being so happy and positive all the time. I sure appreciate knowing that i am not only helping non members, but the missionaries i serve around as well.

This transfer ending has been pretty tough, elder jackson and i are gonna miss being together, man my past two companions have only been with me for 6 weeks back to back! whats with that?? lame!

I am really excited to see something different again, and to be able to again, re-focus my efforts to becoming a better missionary.

Thanks for the emails from everyone! sounds like the family is having alot of fun! i am happy for everybody! 

Mom you are so awesome! i am so proud of the progress you have made riding bike and running! 

Today for p-day we were able to go to a huge bounce house building for completing our zone game (goal). We all played old school games like freeze tag and another game called "infected" it was super fun!! there was one time where i was running full sprint behind the bouncers against the wall, trying to jump over all the blower machines that pump up the jump houses, and i totally caught my backfoot toe on one of them, and wiped out super hard! totally skinned my shin up on the carpet way bad! But all in all we had a good time! we got to spend two hours there messing around.

I will for sure give you guys my new address when i find out where i will be posted. 

Sorry this is kinda boring today. Please forgive me. We dont get a whole lot of time when it is a holiday.

Thanks for your love and support! it means alot to me! 

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

p.s..tried to get ahold of sister davis' sister, but it was a no go, and we didnt have time to drive down where she lives. So i may reffer it to the elders that are serving in her ward boundries. Sorry about that.

Kyle - 2/11/13

Dear family,

Man seems like every week there is something crazy going on! 

Lots of events going on back in utah huh?

Thanks for all the emails and the stories shared this week! its always fun to hear whats

been going on.

Mom, i laughed super hard at your tumbleweed story! Haha i could picture you telling us that

in person, and it made me laugh alot! thanks for sharing!

Thats so crazy that seth is getting on his way into his next life adventures! Like ames said, i thought he said he didnt wanna be like his brother and dad going into the military. But whatever floats his boat right? I will miss working with him at the ol STG golf course!

This past week for me was pretty bogus, i was sick up until saturday. Really bad cold and a really bad sore throat! Pretty lame if you ask me! So we really didnt get to work to much, because the cold finally kicked in here in Hesperia. It rained a few days ago, and a couple of days ago it snowed! it was the second snow i witnessed in my mission so that was really awesome!

Saturday morning elder jackson and i went to the applevalley jess ranch fishing ponds to catch us some trout! Man casting that rod just took me back to kolob fishing with ames and dad in the ol' aluminum boat (that has probably flattened out from the snow up there right?).

Its so crazy to see the changes that have taken place in missionary work since the time that i first came into the field, till now. We will be capping out our 250 missionaries in the mission by mid-summer! 70 of those will be sister missionaries! Holy crap! i am super nervous that the mission is going to become a huge dramafest from the younger sisters and elders. We will see how it plays out though.

The weather is cold, winter is here, and i cant wait for it to end! i've become to adapted to Cali weather that 55 or 60 degrees is cold for me. pretty ridiculous.

I'm glad that you guys got to go to Brittans mission homecoming talk. Its nuts that all of our buddies are starting to come home now! i think ames and i are next in line!

Dad, thanks for getting us the info for sister Davis' sisters place. We will call her up today and see if we can stop by. i know where rocksprings road is, and it isnt going to be in our area. But the elders that are serving in that ward are bosses. So hopefully they can do some good work there after my companion go over and say hi.

Maren, Not going to lie, i am kind of getting bored of the ward here, seeing that i hit 9 months in this ward a couple days ago. Elder jackson and i talked, and we would love to serve together for my last 2 transfers. And a few months ago i requested to our mission president to keep me here for the remainder of my mission. We will see what happens. i'd love to just finish out here. But a new ward would be pretty nice at the same time. Lots of ward members just make fun of me all the time and tease me. Which is starting to get annoying. because they get all offended if i tease them back.

Thanks again for the emails and the support! it means so much!

Transfers are going to be a week from tuesday (19th of Feb) so keep that in mind

as far as sending mail and what not.

love you all!

love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 2/11/13

I cant believe that the month of febuary is already a third of the way
over! Why is it that time just goes super fast? i remember as a kid it
seemed like sitting 15 minutes in the corner lasted eons! Ha, the
reason i bring up the corner is because we were at dinner this week
and a little kid got in trouble and she had to stick her nose in the
corner. Reminded me alot when kyle and i had to go to separate
corners. Good times :)
We had stake Confrence this week, the theme of the confrence seemed to
be missionary work and the temple. Pretty cool. One of our mission
presidency councilors and his wife spoke, they are the parents of my
first ward mission  leaders wife. They are the ones that replaced Dave
Lunt. Also, a member of the temple presidency spoke, he was also
my first ward mission leader in the other ward i served in. haha. It
was fun to see him again, they left for a mission in the palmyra
temple while i was there and they got called home early to serve in
the temple presidency here in the GIla valley Temple. Its neat knowing
so many people in these small town areas, you make alot of cool
connections.
The work here is going great. Our investigators are still doing
awesome. The wife was able to get a ride down to duncan yesterday for
the general stake confrence session. Afterwards she told the members
that she came with that she loved it. Its so neat how receptive this
family it. Iv never seena anything like it :)
Glad to hear that Brittan is doing well. We emailed back and forth a
bit here and there over the mission. Good kid. I didnt realize that
Seth was going into the military. He always told me growing up that he
wouldnt be going into the military. Thats cool though that he is going
to be able to use his Korean. haha, speaking of Korean, the elder
sitting to my right is from south Korean, Elder Kim. He is super cool.
Another cool piece of news, the last stake president here live in my
ward, he just got called to be a mission president! we were so excited
for them. They feed us all the time and treat us like family. What was
funny though was that Elder Phillips and I were talking a couple weeks
ago how he would make a super good mission president and how she would
be the best mission mom. Hmmm, Prophecy? I think yes! They will be
serving a Prochegees (however the heck you spell that) mission. They
will find out where in the beginning of march. Did you guys know that
they are opening fourty something missions this summer! They have
called more mission presidents this cycle than ever on the earth!!!
The lord is truly hastning his work. Its neat to be a part of it.
i hope all else is going well back home.
Love ya lots!
Elder Ettinger

Ames - 2/4/13

     Another great week here in the Clifton ward. Lots of things are starting to happen. One of our Investigators showed up to church on sunday. Her husband wasnt able to make it because he had to work, but we are super excited that she wanteed to come by herself with her kids! They are an awesome family, we have a lesson with them tonight so ill let you know how that goes next week!

     I am super excited to be able to do some diving when we get back, i personaly dont think a refresher would be needed, diving is like riding a bike, when you learn you never forget how to do it. Thats my opinion at least :) Im glad that we now have reasons to go to the east side of the country and explore the atlantic :) Its going to be fun.

    Transfers are in two weeks, why do they seem to go faster and faster each time? Its nuts! I, like kyle, hate it when people ask how long i have been a missionary. When i say 20 months people always say, "Your on the downhill slope." Its sad. Iv loved (And still love) being a missionary. There have been times where I have looked back over my mission and wished i had worked harder or smarter at times, but looking back now i feel like i have done a pretty good job, Its been extreamly rewarding.

     There is a family that will be traveling up to St.George at the begining of April, around easter sometime. They said they would be happy about taking some things home for me. Im going to send as much stuff as i can so i can travel light leaving tucson :)

     Maren and Jakes car looks pretty spiffy. I was surprised to hear that the Subaru started pooping out. I thought it would have lasted a long time.  Maren, what is it that you are doing in this lab? what sort of breakthrough did you make? Sounds like lots of fun :)

     I hope all is going well for everyone! i cant believe we are almost going to see each other again!

Much love,

Elder Ettinger

    

Kyle - 2/4/13

Dear family,

Hey everyone, sounds like everyone in the family has been doing some exciting things!

Thats awesome mom that you are working hard to get ready for your first ironman!! i am just so stoked that ames and i will be able to support you and dad this year! i have truly missed those family events! Maren and jake, thats super dope that you bought a newish car! i have seen quite a few of the elantras cruzing around where i live. pretty awesome car!

i was doing some math the other day. if i didnt serve a mission, and kept working full time. i could've bought a 2011 camero haha. There is a guy in our ward that showed us his, i may or may not have been priviliged to drive it around the block a couple times. But anyways, i am so glad that ames and i are serving the lord! its so much fun!!

This last wednesday we had exchanges with our district leader. I finally left my area for the day! I havent been on exchanges for like 5 months now! so that was good. The people we ate dinner at had some super awesome sand rails in there garage! they were like 80 or 90 thousand dollars each! but they were so so sick!! i love talking to people about offroad.

while on exchanges, elder jackson found a few potentials for us to visit. We went back a few days later and gave a few families the finding faith in Christ videos. one of them watched it and wished that the video was longer! (its only 20 min or so) but we gave him a copy of the book of mormon and he said he was really wanting to read it. We have him one chapter to start in, but his response was "to be honest, i will probably just read the whole thing" we were super amped about this!

One thing i am starting to really really hate is how quickly people tell me that i am going home soon. I still have over 3 months, its not coming to a close quite yet! so i am gonna keep telling people "oh i've been out over a year" 

Thanks for everyones love and support! it is so awesome!

i love this work and this gospel so much!! keep sharing

it with others in Utah and North Carolina!

love you all,

elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 1/28/13

Hey Family,

Thanks for the emails this week! its always fun hearing from everyone.
Thanks jake for bunging out and saying "see you soon" i might as well just
pack my bags for home now huh? fail...

umm, so this past week was pretty cool! our district was challenged to hand out 10
books of mormon. elder j. and i handed out 5 yesterday, in our ward we have been challenging the members to pass our BoMs to there neighbors, but we were like "how can we ask them to do that, if we havent even passed them out to our own neighbors" so we packed our bags up with the books and headed out to our appartment neighbors.
we gave out our 5 books in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes!
 one was to this really awesome lady who didnt speak english, my companion asked if she would like a copy of the book in spanish instead she said "ha ha no no, i am armenian" turns out the lady was from russia! super dope! she asked if we could get the book in russian, so we are gonna order one from the office this next week.

Elder j. and i are having a really good time! we told each other that if we dont laugh for any reason, at least once a day. Something in our companionship is wrong. A.K.A we get along super great! which makes the work so much more fun!

i am in the point of my mission where i am older than alot of other missionaries as far as months go. So whenever members ask "So who is close to going home?" everyone points their fingers at me! it is actually kind of depressing! i really dont want my mission to come to a close.

i am glad that maren and jake got their big pallet of stuff. Thats pretty exciting! we helped a lady move this past saturday, and i was the director of the truck packing. Glad that ames and i have recieved some great opportunities to pack trucks efficiently.

Thanks cannon couple for the pictures! Some of the wedding ones you already sent, but i really enjoy getting pictures and showing off my cool family to my buddies. 
Dad, elder j. was talking about getting into physical therapy. Any chance you could send out another packet of info to help him out? like you sent out for the other sister missionary a few months ago?

Time keeps flying here in the mission! its super crazy!!
we have zone conference on tuesday! yay for sitting in a meeting from 8:00 to 5:00!!

Thanks for everyones love and support! it sure means alot! i hope everyone has a fun week!
always be safe and have a good time!
p.s. Mom, at dinner last night, we were talking alot of doing gardening and growing your own produce. they asked what you can grow in your green house in the winter time? i totally forgot so i told them i would ask you... I like to tell people that you cheat in the winter time ha ha

Take care everyone!! keep being awesome!

love, elder kyle ettinger

so i just wanted to show you these two pictures.

one if of ames and i teaching a lesson to an investigator haha
and the other is of my companion and i walking along the aqueduct in the sunset

just wanted to share with ya

have a great week guys! much love!

Elder kyle