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