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

Ames - 1/22/13

Things are finaly starting to go uphill for us here in the middle of nowhere. ha. its about time!

At church on sunday two non members came to church with their friends. we introduced ourselves and thy were really nice people. After church the member came up to us and explained that she had invited them to meet with the missionaries to learn more and they accepted! so we are going to teach them the first lesson later in the week. i will be sure to update you on how that goes. Also, we had a rediculusly long ward council meeting (2 1/2 Hours! Dad how long were your ward council meetings when you were bishop?) on sunday where we created our Ward Mission Plan and assigned a buch of Auxilary Presidents to invite spesifc people to meet with the full time missionaries. Super Awesome! the ward has really stepped up to the plate with the missionary work. People are calling us for all sorts of things now. :)

For Pday yesterday we went off roading to find some old train Tunnels that are pretty close by our area. We went the wrong way a few times but it was a fun adventure. After we got out of this big wash we were bumpping along the train and blew the front right tire. Man was that loud! sounded like someone put one of those confetti poppers in my ear and pulled the string! ha. so we got that changed and made it back out. we have to drive on the spare for the rest of the week until we go to safford on Monday for some other appointments. After that whole episode we also found an old mining tunnel that we explored, turns out that it was only like 100 feet long, quite a dissapointment. We found the whereabouts of another one that is apperently better that we will try out next week. ha. This little town is awesome!

Dad will appreciate this next story, in ward council we were talking about a less active in the ward and what we all could do to help him out. after some talk we decided that we would set up a gold panning activity for the young men because one of this guys hobbies is gold panning!!! im deffinatly going with the YM on that activity! haha thats one thing that Elder P. and i talked about, as missionaries we can pretty much go to any activity that we want. Young mens, elders quorm, High Priests, you name it and we can pretty much go :)

I hope all else is going well with everyone!

Much love,

Elder Ettinger

 

Photos:

Elder Ettinger and Elder Ettinger

Homemade Doughnuts... YUM!

Kyle - 1/21/13

Dear Family,

We were told that we could email at a members house today, so i am gonna have to keep it a little short.
Last week was pretty lame, not much happened. Elder j. and i have been going around trying
to contact part member families to teach as well as some less actives. i mostly just wanted to get my companion introduced to the area and the main people that we work with most.
This transfer we are having a zone game, where we get points for certain key indicators, i have done games like his in the past, and most zone leaders set up the point system pretty well. i am already noticing that our zls didnt do a good job at setting this one up, so i am hoping that they are open for comments and suggestions, where we can fine tune the game a bit. we shall see.

dad, what did i say this time to make you say "No trunkyness??" ha i am trying my best to work hard and to stay strong till the end. 

I am really looking forward to this transfer, elder j. is a total boss and we are gonna for sure get along with each other
i just talked to him, and he said that one of his parents worked with kent barthalomew i think. he said that he somewhat knows
who they are.

Not much else to talk about this time. Hope you guys have a great week and keep spreading the gospel in
good ol st george!
Love. Elder kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 1/17/13

Hey family,

 

just wanted to send a quick email and let you know who my new companion is.

His name is elder a j, he has been out on his mission for almost 19 months, so just one

transfer behind ames and i. He is ironicly from jerome idaho!! So naturally you guys need to let me know

what uncle larry's address is there. To see if he lives anywhere near elder jackson.

i am super excited to have an older companion again, we are gonna have alot of

good times. Let the miracles in the maple continue!!

Its super nuts that we turn 20 months tomorrow!! wow!

Thanks for the support from everyone! just wanted to shoot you this quick

email. talk to you monday

love, elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 1/14/13

Dear Family,

 

Man the past 6 weeks have gone way way fast!! it has for sure been one of my fastest transfers!!

 Something i wish i did in the beginning of my mission was mark a calendar for you guys of all the transfer dates. So you could keep track. Oh well, thats something i will do for my kids or something.

 

This past week was pretty uneventful because my companion was preping all of his things to be getting on the plane back to washington. He was really excited but also pretty nervous to go back home.

 

Almost forgot, i am going to be staying in the Maple ward, yet again!!!! haha its super nuts! that will be about 10 months, maybe 10 and a half by the time this next transfer ends! Time has gone SUPER fast in this ward! i am really nervous about who i will get for my next companion. I hope it is someone i know, but our mission is getting so many missionaries, i feel like i dont know anyone anymore.

 

Not to much to report about, thanks for ames' face. one of the elders put it over his face and walked out of the room into where i was sitting, and it totally tripped me out! haha because he called me a bunger, and i totally thought it was ames! the quality of those pictures were pretty awesome! Good job :)

 

ha something i thought was funny, is that elder q wasnt able to take his tote home or his guitar, so i am gonna babysit that stuff for him. Oh, and he also just gave me his car GPS, so i am pretty stoked about that.

 

Dad, i hope that you are feeling better from the ol shin scrape. I think i'd always get nervous jumping up from that rock to there driveway. pretty sure i've scraped my leg up doing that same thing! ha

Thanks for all the love and prayers! it really means alot!

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 1/14/13

The way transfers went this time around was alot diffrent then usual. Not by how it was done or what happened, just that some how it came and went without me really stressing about the fact that we may or may not get a call. Its kinda nice not having to stress out. So the big, or not so big, news: Elder Phillips and i are staying for round two. Im pretty excited to keep serving here in cliffton, im not so sure that Elder Phillips is, but we are going to do our best to turn this area around. Its been used and abused alot over the last year or so and its going to take alot of work. Elder Phillips and I made some "New Transfer Resolutions" to step it up a bit and go beond what we have been doing so that the lord can bless this area. Becasue its going to take his help to heal what has been hurt.

Here is some interesting news that we recived in our email from president killpack, "Because of the changes with regard to amount of time spent in the MTC, most missions will experience a one-time change to a transfer period. For us this will occur this transfer. There will only be 5 weeks in this next transfer. So the next transfer will be February 19th. Then the normal 6 week transfers will resume again. But that one-time change effectually moves all future transfers forward one week as well. "

Looks like Kyles theory was correct. so you guys can expect me (Hopefully us depending on when kyles mission loses the week) home on the 15th of may instead of the 22nd.

Im glad to hear that everyone is settling back into normal life. Sounds like dad scraped up his shin pretty good if he needed steri strips, i hope that you didnt just whimp out on us dad and only had a small scrape. We need you to be rough n tough for all the adventures coming up haha.

I got your envolope that you sent mom, thanks for kyles head... Elder Phillips and I are making plans for its use... :) Thanks for the goodies as well.

Sounds like Jake is having a fun time bumming around. (Not such a great impression... jk :) ) Were you able to get your guns into NC easily? are the gun laws in NC much stricter than utah? i think they must be to some degree because Utah is so lax when it comes to guns. haha.

Mom i have a request for you: i was hoping that you could call/ swing by the Admin/registration offices over at Dixie state and see what it takes to get me registered for the fall semester, and find out when class registration starts, i dont want to get hosed on classes :) thanks so much!!!

Dad, i appriciate keeping a few of the unused fireworks :)

I hope all else is going well back home and in NC,

Love you all lots and lots!

Elder Ettinger

ps, i cant wait to share a massive slide show off hundreds of picures!!!

Kyle - 1/8/2013

Dear Family,

 

Hey everyone!

So as you all know, this past week was one of the most stressful, but most happy weeks of my mission! Everything was in such a jumble! until our investigator showed up on time to her baptism (which i was worried about) then everything fell into place. The Relief society president made it to the baptism, and also a few other sisters in the ward what she had met. I was given the awesome privilage to be able to baptize her! I was super super nervous, and didnt wanna mess up the service at all. I ended up doing everything okay, except i didnt give her enough time to plug her nose before going under the water. So she came up coughing and i kinda felt bad afterwards. But it was alright.

The next sunday, our ward mission leader was suppose to do the confirmation. but he got sick and didnt come. So thats where i made my second mistake. Filled out the record for who was doing the confirmation, before it happened. So because our bishop ended up doing the confirmation,we had to fill out a whole new record. Which have to be SUPER precise! zero mistakes.

 

I am super happy that maren and jake had a good time on there honeymoon. i got wondering what mom and dad did for theres. But it sounds like dad bunged out again, like his first date playing tennis with mom. I think thats what you did right??

 

My P-days are still on monday. It was just a wednesday last week because of us going to the temple. Temple days turn into p-days. because they dont want us to have 2 in the week. makes sense.

We have a trunky meter on our whiteboard. i am honored to be in charge of the level of trunkiness of my companion. Last night he was clear up at a level 9. But now it is back down to a level 6 haha. He is really excited to get back home to see his family again.

 

Thanks for all of your prayers this past week! sure appreciate it! I hope everyone has a great week!! and we will talk to you guys next week!

Preach the good word to everyone!

Love, Elder kyle Ettinger

 

 

Ames - 1/8/2013

The last few days have been full of traveling, and its not over yet. On Pday we had to go down to the Gila Valley to pick up some medications and a doc appointment so we decided to just spend the whole pday down there and play sports with the other elders there since we dont get to have very much pday fun around these parts. (These parts ?!?!! im starting to talk like im from clifton!!!) Thats about a 40 minute drive each way. Today we had to go back because Elder P. had a return appointment for some blood work and an X-ray. So thats another 40 minutes each way. and then we have to go to silver city tomorrow for Zone meeting which is a 2 hour drive each way... Lots of car time this week. No Bueno. I think its funny that Dave laughed when he found out where i was serving. Most people do :) Because you mentioned the Dinero envolved ill give you some stats. So down in the mine there are these massive haul trucks that move the dirt around. (Kyle would love driving one of these two story buildings) the Tires are 12 feet tall and the cab of the truck sits 16 feet off the ground. The bigger trucks can haul around 350 tons but the mine overloads them to around 400 to get more dumps for their buck. We learned the other night that one load of dirt with come out to about $10,000 worth of copper and gold. NUTS! Its acutaly pretty cool talking to all the people here about the mine and all the processes it takes to go from dirt to pure copper. They use a TON of Sulphuric Acid. Bring it in on trains that have tons of cars. Pretty sweet.

     Im glad to hear that the Honney Moon went well. Pretty jealous about being able to swim with some sharks and jelly fish. Maren did you take any specimens back to the lab for some DNA research? Thats the question dad wanted to ask but didnt. haha Just kidding dad, love ya. (Seriously though)

     The work here is still going really slow. Trying to Rebuild some member trust so that they will be more helpful in the work. Its tough work though. We got a referal on our phone that we were super stoked on but it turns out that the house doesnt exist haha. You win some you lose some.

I hope all else is going great for you all.

Lots of love,

Elder Ettinger

Ps cant wait to launch some illegals!

pps. mom are you training for the Ironman too? if so that would have been nice to know! haha. Good luck on the 1/2 marathon.

ppps. I talked to my trainer former Elder S., he is pre engaged to a girl that was in the ward we served in together. Pretty crazy! They are getting married over the summer so ill be coming back to the Valley for that :)

pppps sounds like the elder Heads were a hit at the reception, iv allready had two letters where people commented on them haha.

ppppps also, it snowed a ton last week down south, we were helping to cut some trees with some other missionaries. :)

Snow in Clifton

The big mine trucks that are two stories tall!

Kyle - 1/2/2013

Good afternoon family,

 

So i forgot that our p-day was switched to today because of our temple trip.

I finally got to go down to the temple again! our past trips never worked out for rides and what not. So i was finally able to go again, it had been almost 8 months! i loved it so much! The Redlands temple is so tiny! ha its kinda funny.

on the way back to hesperia, me and my buddy elder t. were talking about all the cool hikes we've done in zion National Park. Turns out we have done alot of the same ones he has! he is from Richfield UT by the way. so we are gonna go hiking and snowboarding when we get home. Pretty excited.

 

So i am very very excited to announce that i have my first legitimate baptism this weekend!!!!!! Saturday morning at 9:00 She is a lady that we have been teaching for the

past few months, she has always wanted to get baptized, but we just havent been able to

get the lessons in. The cool thing is that she wants to get her aunt involved in the teaching as well. So we called the sister missionaries in her area, and turns out they already have an appointment set up with the lady. The irony was pretty awesome. but it gets better... It sorta dawned on me that i knew a lady back in the Rialto 1st ward that kinda looked like our investigator. They also had the same last name. i called the rialto sister and got her first name. Then called up our investigator up here in hesperia to ask if they were related at all.. Turns out that they are sisters!! i just love how past wards connect!! Anyways, i am very excited for this weekend. Please keep me in your prayers for comfort and support for this awesome event! Thanks everyone!

 

Today for p-day we are going to have a nerf gun war! Most of the elders in the zone have bought guns, and we had some members give us a couple. of course we did some research and found out how to trick them out to shoot alot harder and further. So we are gonna set up a course in the gym of the stake center. Should be a good time.

(dont jump to conclusions haha. please note that other zones have done this, and it is approved)

 

Thanks again for everyones love and support! it means so much! and i just love being a missionary so much! it has blessed my life more than i could ever describe! its the best!

Have a great week and talk to you next monday

Love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 12/22/2012

Hey family,

 

Merry Christmas Everyone

 

I am sending a quick email today since we arent going to be able to email on christmas eve, the librarys are closed that day, as well as the next week on new years eve. kinda lame, but i am use to the librarys being closed on the holidays, and they always seem to land on the mondays.

 

This past week wasnt as productive as the others that we have had this transfer, but we were able to go out with your ward mission leader which was really fun, and we had our christmas missionary devotional this past friday. That was really fun! our mission president dressed up as santa ha, and we all got to sit on his lap, my companion asked him for a plane ticket home, he said yes (since he is leaving in a few weeks to go home) and then it was my turn next and i asked him if i could go home

with my companion, he told me no..haha it was funny.

 

The holiday season came really fast, but it is slowing down alot i think. its okay though, i think after this transfer, past all

the holidays, it is going to go really really fast.

I would like to wish maren and jake the best for when they get married this next week!! i am so proud of you maren! I love you so much!.

 

Sorry this is a bit short, i am in a hurry today. Thanks for the packages of presents! i am excited to open them in a couple days.

Maren, the homemade snow is super awesome! especially that we will probably not get snow this year in the desert.

thanks so much for everyones prayers and support! it is so great!

Love you all, talk to you soon,

elder Kyle Ettinger

Kyle - 12/17/2012

Good Morning family,

 

Thanks for the emails and neat stories about your guys' weeks. Sounds like everything is getting underway for marens wedding in less than two weeks!! Super nuts!

I cant believe that christmas came so so fast this year, its only 7 days away! I am excited to get your packages and what not, sure hope you enjoyed our christmas cards and the few things i send this year! I am just so focused on serving the lord this year! so fun!!

 

This past week elder q. and i got 4 new investigators and 5 new baptismal dates!! that brings our total gators with dates up to 8!!! So many compared to the past wards and work ive been involved in! The past two weeks have for sure been the happiest and most fun of my mission! I am starting to really have fun doing the work again, i sorta lost that fire later in my mission. But it is coming back, because i need to do all i can to finish strong.

We didnt make our 100 contacts this week, but we did get 79 which is still so much compared to what i usually get, and 50 of those were all done yesterday before and after church! Walmart parking lot and a statorbros parking lot (statorbrothers is like harmons grocery in cali.)

Let the work continue here in the maple ward!!! We sure a kicking butt here! and i am loving it so much!! i cant wait to talk to you guys on christmas!

 

mom thats cool that you got a new GPS watch, sounds really fancy! hope you figure out how to watch some tutorials and what not ha. You could track the route that you take when you guys do some running christmas light hunting.

Elder q. and i are planning on driving around a little bit to look at lights this year as well. We are so so stoked to be companions over christmas and new years.

Our zone is gonna watch the movie elf christmas eve. pretty cool

And we have our mission christmas devotional on the 21st this week.

Where i'll be able to see some of my friends from down the hill in san bernardino, and also the other desert zones. Way pumped!

Thanks for the love and support family! keep being happy and have a merry christmas!

Talk to you soon!!!

love, Elder Kyle Ettinger

Ames - 12/17/2012

Haha, So im Moms email this week she mentioned how in two weeks maren and jake would be married and she said "Yipes". It reminded me of the times where someone would tell a story and mom would reply "Yipes Stripes". Fun Times.

This week was an alright week. The work is so much diffrent here than anywhere else and we are still trying to get our minds and agendas around it haha. so not a whole lot to talk about this week. However, last night we went to a lady who isnt a member but she comes to church all the time and has been taught a bunch by missionaries. We went over with two younger guys in the ward and caroled to her. She has lived here in clifton for over 60 years and we were the first people to ever carol for her! it was real fun. We then talked on the porch for a little while and she invited us in and we talked about Clifton and some of the History and how she remembers her dad building her house. It was really fun. She reminds me alot of Grandma, She even likes Pigs!

No one mentioned anything this week about when to do phone calls, Kyle was thinking around 2 oclock which is 3 for the rest of us, if we dont here back i suppose thats what we will plan on. Remember we can also call for a couple minutes the day before to finalize plans.

I would just like to say how proud of my sister i am. There is no better place than the Temple and im so glad that you found an awesome Guy to take you there. I cant wait to hear all about wedding and all the memories that will come from that day for you guys. You guys better send a bunch of pictures!

Im so glad that we have the next 5 months to continue to serve the lord. Serving a Mission is by far the coolest/hardest/funnest/most rewarding thing I have ever done.

We get to go to the Temple this week. I got ahold of L. this last week and he will be going to the session this week. It will be the last time that I will see him for a couple years. Im so excited for him though.

I hope you all have a grand week preping for the Wedding, (Thats one thing im glad im missing ;) )

Love you all.

Elder Ettinger