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