Dear Family! June 19, 2011
Kia Ora agian! Time just flies by sometimes! There is a lot going all with all the family! I’m glad that everyone is getting involved with all the exciting activities...especially with the church. That makes me happy to hear Ryan is still on Heritage Tours and is loving the experience. I can’t wait to hear how it was and get an e mail from him. So did he get to go in Washington D.C.? I remember we didn’t get to go there for some reason. When did he go to New York City? I wonder if it was the same day I went past Auckland.... I just hope and pray that he is having a wonderful spiritual experience. I’m so happy for him. I absolutely loved Heritage Tours. I hope he is taking a lot of pictures and writing in his journal. Wow and I’m excited to hear Jami is going on OYA! That will be really cool and exciting...I remember I wanted to do that. I looked at it and it looked really fun. Jami you’re going to have an amazing experience. Take Pictures!! And then tell me all about it. I will be praying for you to have a great experience. I’m just so happy everyone is doing some really amazing things. Our family truly is blessed so much to be able to do all things incredible things.
Your probably right....it must be so weird to have only one child in the home from used to be 4. haha Dad I started laughing when you said you’re in a house full of girls. I’m sure it’s good for you to go golfing or the gym eh? I hope you start playing a little better....I remember how frustrating it can get sometimes. Mom I’m sure you’re so excited to go down to Arizona with all your sisters. That’s always exciting....I remember when you guys would stay up so late talking and we always wanted to be involved with listening. I was really sad to hear that the forest is all burnt down...It’s a blessing though that Eagar is okay. It seriously is the signs of the times...even fires are extremely worse than usual. I’m really glad Kaylee had a good time at the youth conference. :) Jami and Kaylee are both really wonderful girls!
Well your probably wondering how my Temple Trip/Zone Conference went! Wow it was seriously so much fun and very spiritual experience...I loved it. Well we were supposed to drive down Monday night and stay the night in Auckland. But one of the other companionships clear up north didn’t understand and they left to late. So me and my companion had to stay back and wait for them. Went had to get up at 2 am!! Eh I know!! And then leave by 3 am so we could get there on time and be early just in case the bus left us. So we drove all the way to Auckland. Then everyone got on this really nice bus and we all drove down (1/3 of the mission) the other 2/3 went to the temple of different days. Oh yeah guess what our mission is one of the biggest missions in the entire church!! The bus ride was fun...We watched the Joseph Smith movie. We got to the temple and we had a spiritual devotional in the visitor center. Then we went up and did a session in the temple. Wow I had so many spiritual experiences and I received some revelation from Heavenly Father. That place is literally Heaven on earth. I loved it so much and I love being in that sacred and holy place, absolutely beautiful inside. Then we went to a stake center in Hamilton and had our zone conference. We had lunch first which was so good. We had some musical items while we were eating. Then we went inside the chapel for some trainings and things. We had another musical program...wow it was breath taking...some of the missionaries and just so talented here. It is amazing to be in a mission with so much culture. There are missionaries from all around the world. In our zone we have missionaries from Samoa, Africa, Thailand, Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and the United States! That’s just in our zone!! So it is just great to see musical performances and just experience all the culture. After that we had a very spiritual experience with President and Sister Porter. They gave some just wonderful training and we had kind of a farewell program for them. Wow I got so emotional....I’m going to miss them so much. They have influenced me in incredible ways. You could tell President and Sister Porter loved their mission so much and they are going to be so sad to leave. They got so emotional too. But it was a bitter/sweet experience. They also did a really funny thing. They both went up to the front and said okay we've never done this...but now you can ask us about our marriage, dating, how the met and stuff about that. Wow it was hilarious!! We laughed so hard. ohhh man....I love them. After that we all went to this famous place and all got ice cream!! It is a place with so many flavors and you can get as many scoops as you want. The record is last year a missionary got 18 scoops! And they are big scoops! Someone in our trip got 12 but I don’t know about the other days. I only had 4...I didn’t want to spend that much money on just getting a brain freeze haha. Well after that we headed back and traveled to Auckland. We then we into our cars and headed back up to Whangarei....okay we had this crazy experience. We were driving and the main high way was closed because of an accident. So we had to drive on this Tiny little country road in the middle of NZ and it was almost a dirt road. Well the missionary who was driving us went way to fast around a corner and .......well we crashed!! I got in my first accident! Wow it was a weird....But before I say anything more...I am perfectly okay! I didn’t even get a little bump or scratch on me, nothing at all. And no one in the car did. But the car got pretty banged up. Well just the front. We slipped off the road and crashed into a little hill side. It wasn’t bad and we are lucky we crashed where we did. The missionary was pretty upset. Well I don’t know what happened to the car we just went into another car and drove home. Well that was my Temple Trip experience!
This week was great. The sisters in our district had a baptism and the guy asked me to baptize him because I had interviewed him, so that was a cool experience. Ohhh yeah my bike tire exploded on Friday. hahaha...we filled it with too much air and when I was just riding it, it sounded like a gun shot went off and it was my tire! So we've been walking the past couple of days. Oh man I’ve had some pretty funny experiences. Riding bikes in this crazy place is just an adventure.
Well Destiny will be getting baptized this Saturday. Hone had some big trails and decided not to get baptized which was heart breaking....but we just have to move on and don’t be too depressed when things happen like that. I know Heavenly Father will prepare a way. Well it just keeps on raining here....So much!! Rain Rain Rain hahaha. Well tell all the family hello for me! On both sides...I miss them all so much.
Thanks mom for your e mail. I love hearing all about the family and whats going on. I really miss ya. :) You should send some more pictures. I am going to send another DVD with more recent pictures with it soon. Have you gotten 2 DVDs from me?? I think so eh. Me and my companion made Lasagna last night for dinner....it wasn’t as good as yours. I miss your cooking mom! I just love everything about you.
Well until next week everyone be safe on all their trips and everything they are doing! I love you all very much. Just know I’m loving my mission and everything is just amazing.
Love your son, brother, and friend.
Elder Tyler Kitchen
Happy heart day
We love you too!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Dear Family! June 12, 2011
Kia Ora to all the Fano! haha Fano means Family. I want to learn some more Maori words since I’m here in New Zealand. Thank you all for your e mails and prayers that you say in my behalf....I really do love them all. I was very excited and grateful to hear Ryan is loving Heritage Tours and having a good time....that brings back so many memories of me going on that. What a wonderful experience. I would love to be in the Sacred Grove today...I pray he will have a very spiritual experience. I can still remember when we went we took of our shoes and walked around because it was holy and sacred ground. I remember when I was in the Sacred Grove I went off by myself and pondered the scriptures. I read the Joseph Smith history of the First Vision experience, I sat and pondered what I must have looked like. And most importantly I prayed. I prayed a lot and I asked our Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith really saw what he said. I can remember I felt the Holy Spirit testify to me that it was indeed true. I knew that the restoration had taken place and I felt the over whelming peaceful, warm, feeling of the spirit enter into my body witnessing unto me that it was true. I loved that place and its beauty...wow it’s a little bit of heaven on Earth. I pray and hope that Ryan will feel the spirit and it will be an experience that will change his life.
I was also excited to hear that Kaylee and Jami went to the Youth Conference thing. I’m sure that was a wonderful great experience. I loved all those kind of things...oh I was wondering...is Jami or Kaylee ever going to go to EFY like I did? I loved that experience. I bet it was really weird to have none of us kids there at the house.
Well my week was really great. I’m so excited too because we are going to the Temple tomorrow!! We will be driving down to Auckland tonight and then we'll stay the night. We will be leaving tomorrow morning at 7 to the temple in Hamilton. I can’t wait....I love the temple. We will be having a zone conference and a big program to kind of like a say good bye to President Porter and his wife. I will really miss them. We are all going to go to this ice cream place too which will be really exciting. This week we have had a lot of success. We've talked to a ton of people and trying to do all we can to spread the gospel. We were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie with one of our investigators that is getting baptized. Right now we have 3 that are set with a baptism date for the 25th of June. Hone, Destiney, and Ani they are all so great. On Thursday we went down to Auckland for leadership training. Wow I learned a lot and felt the spirit. They had some really good DVD presentations which brought the spirit in so strong. President Porter is such a powerful speaker. He is so inspiring...I don’t know what I’m going to do without him haha. He got a new assignment from the church. He is going to help the Leadership of the church leaders improve. Help them become better leaders. I know one of the reasons why I came to this mission was because of him. Saturday we went on a trade off. I went to the zone leader’s area and was with Elder Haight. We had a lot of great miracles, and we were lead by the spirit the whole day. We talked to about 70 people on the street and door knocking that day!! Yesterday at church we had a wonderful experience happen. We were spending the whole morning trying to get people to church. When we got there Hone (our baptism set) wasn’t there. And he needed to be at that sacrament to qualify for his baptism date. He wasn’t there so we prayed really hard. We had no one to take us all the way to his house and get him. A miracle happened a member came out and said elders do you need something. We drove there, talked to him, said a prayer and he got dressed and we drove back just in time and he was in sacrament meeting. So he qualifies...it was just a miracle.
Mom I’m so sorry to hear about Arizona....that’s horrible and makes me sad. I’m glad Susan is okay though. Well I’m sorry but I got to go now....I love you all.
Love Elder Kitchen
Kia Ora to all the Fano! haha Fano means Family. I want to learn some more Maori words since I’m here in New Zealand. Thank you all for your e mails and prayers that you say in my behalf....I really do love them all. I was very excited and grateful to hear Ryan is loving Heritage Tours and having a good time....that brings back so many memories of me going on that. What a wonderful experience. I would love to be in the Sacred Grove today...I pray he will have a very spiritual experience. I can still remember when we went we took of our shoes and walked around because it was holy and sacred ground. I remember when I was in the Sacred Grove I went off by myself and pondered the scriptures. I read the Joseph Smith history of the First Vision experience, I sat and pondered what I must have looked like. And most importantly I prayed. I prayed a lot and I asked our Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon was true and if Joseph Smith really saw what he said. I can remember I felt the Holy Spirit testify to me that it was indeed true. I knew that the restoration had taken place and I felt the over whelming peaceful, warm, feeling of the spirit enter into my body witnessing unto me that it was true. I loved that place and its beauty...wow it’s a little bit of heaven on Earth. I pray and hope that Ryan will feel the spirit and it will be an experience that will change his life.
I was also excited to hear that Kaylee and Jami went to the Youth Conference thing. I’m sure that was a wonderful great experience. I loved all those kind of things...oh I was wondering...is Jami or Kaylee ever going to go to EFY like I did? I loved that experience. I bet it was really weird to have none of us kids there at the house.
Well my week was really great. I’m so excited too because we are going to the Temple tomorrow!! We will be driving down to Auckland tonight and then we'll stay the night. We will be leaving tomorrow morning at 7 to the temple in Hamilton. I can’t wait....I love the temple. We will be having a zone conference and a big program to kind of like a say good bye to President Porter and his wife. I will really miss them. We are all going to go to this ice cream place too which will be really exciting. This week we have had a lot of success. We've talked to a ton of people and trying to do all we can to spread the gospel. We were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie with one of our investigators that is getting baptized. Right now we have 3 that are set with a baptism date for the 25th of June. Hone, Destiney, and Ani they are all so great. On Thursday we went down to Auckland for leadership training. Wow I learned a lot and felt the spirit. They had some really good DVD presentations which brought the spirit in so strong. President Porter is such a powerful speaker. He is so inspiring...I don’t know what I’m going to do without him haha. He got a new assignment from the church. He is going to help the Leadership of the church leaders improve. Help them become better leaders. I know one of the reasons why I came to this mission was because of him. Saturday we went on a trade off. I went to the zone leader’s area and was with Elder Haight. We had a lot of great miracles, and we were lead by the spirit the whole day. We talked to about 70 people on the street and door knocking that day!! Yesterday at church we had a wonderful experience happen. We were spending the whole morning trying to get people to church. When we got there Hone (our baptism set) wasn’t there. And he needed to be at that sacrament to qualify for his baptism date. He wasn’t there so we prayed really hard. We had no one to take us all the way to his house and get him. A miracle happened a member came out and said elders do you need something. We drove there, talked to him, said a prayer and he got dressed and we drove back just in time and he was in sacrament meeting. So he qualifies...it was just a miracle.
Mom I’m so sorry to hear about Arizona....that’s horrible and makes me sad. I’m glad Susan is okay though. Well I’m sorry but I got to go now....I love you all.
Love Elder Kitchen
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Dear Kitchen Family!
How is everything going this week with my wonderful family? Thanks for the great emails as usual. I emailed Ryan back and sent it to his email! I hope he can read it before he leaves on Heritage Tours! So I won’t be able to e mail this letter very long. Thanks for all the pictures....I loved them. Oh I forgot to tell Ryan that I liked his hair cut...it looks really good. He buzzed it all off. hahaha....I’ve done that a lot of times on my mission. It’s so funny. It’s too expensive to go to a hair cutting place so we just have the other missionaries do it. A lot of my companions have just used a buzzer to cut my hair! haha....I’ve even done my own hair one time and my companion buzzed that back part that I couldn’t reach.
I received my birthday package!! Thank you so much for it!! It was great and I loved the nice blanket...all the letters and candy. Everything was just wonderful. I know you put a lot of hard work into those mom and it makes me so happy to receive them....I love you. Thanks for the pop tarts....I miss those a lot. I laughed too because Jami sent me a picture off all of us looking crazy! oh and you sent me another hamster dance song card. My companion was laughing really hard...he thinks it’s funny. Well it was transfers and me and my companion stayed. So that means I’ll be here in Whangarei at least another 6 weeks! I like it here. I love my companion too...we get along very well and have a lot of success together. He is so funny and we know when to work really hard and also when to laugh! I received some new elders and sisters into my district. I will have to tell you their names and where they are from another time. This past week we worked really hard. We had a lot of miracles. We set 3 investigators for baptism. We found a miracle family and set the dad and the son for baptism. They came to church yesterday and the 14 year old son and the less active mom went up and bore their testimonies. Wow the spirit was so strong and I couldn’t stop getting emotional. It brings me so much joy and happiness to know I am helping people change their lives. We also just had this wonderful experience of finding 9 new investigators. A couple of them are so prepared by the Lord. I wish I had time to write to you about all these miracles and experiences.
I’m also glad that the weather is getting better....The weather throughout the world is crazy. In James email he wrote me they had some tornadoes touch down in their mission...crazy. Oh before I forget....I really thought that picture Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth sent me was cool. It’s amazing how real that is and it truly does feel like that on a mission. It gave me a lot of inspiration. Tell them thank you and I also received their birthday card. I love them and miss them so much. I'm so happy to know they are on a mission serving the Lord. I know a lot of really wonderful senior couples in my mission and I’m sure they are great missionaries.
Mom that is so funny about Elder Southwick...I knew him pretty good. Oh yeah and I’m going to miss President and Sister Porter so much. I heard they are moving to Draper now.... I was sad...oh well it’s still close. I am going to Leadership training in Auckland this Thursday so I will see them again! I figured out about my bike. I called the mission office and it was a miracle. They have I bike they will just let me use until I leave off my mission! and they won’t charge me a cent! Blessings!
Well I got to go. I love you all so much. Tell all the family I love them and miss them!
Elder Kitchen
How is everything going this week with my wonderful family? Thanks for the great emails as usual. I emailed Ryan back and sent it to his email! I hope he can read it before he leaves on Heritage Tours! So I won’t be able to e mail this letter very long. Thanks for all the pictures....I loved them. Oh I forgot to tell Ryan that I liked his hair cut...it looks really good. He buzzed it all off. hahaha....I’ve done that a lot of times on my mission. It’s so funny. It’s too expensive to go to a hair cutting place so we just have the other missionaries do it. A lot of my companions have just used a buzzer to cut my hair! haha....I’ve even done my own hair one time and my companion buzzed that back part that I couldn’t reach.
I received my birthday package!! Thank you so much for it!! It was great and I loved the nice blanket...all the letters and candy. Everything was just wonderful. I know you put a lot of hard work into those mom and it makes me so happy to receive them....I love you. Thanks for the pop tarts....I miss those a lot. I laughed too because Jami sent me a picture off all of us looking crazy! oh and you sent me another hamster dance song card. My companion was laughing really hard...he thinks it’s funny. Well it was transfers and me and my companion stayed. So that means I’ll be here in Whangarei at least another 6 weeks! I like it here. I love my companion too...we get along very well and have a lot of success together. He is so funny and we know when to work really hard and also when to laugh! I received some new elders and sisters into my district. I will have to tell you their names and where they are from another time. This past week we worked really hard. We had a lot of miracles. We set 3 investigators for baptism. We found a miracle family and set the dad and the son for baptism. They came to church yesterday and the 14 year old son and the less active mom went up and bore their testimonies. Wow the spirit was so strong and I couldn’t stop getting emotional. It brings me so much joy and happiness to know I am helping people change their lives. We also just had this wonderful experience of finding 9 new investigators. A couple of them are so prepared by the Lord. I wish I had time to write to you about all these miracles and experiences.
I’m also glad that the weather is getting better....The weather throughout the world is crazy. In James email he wrote me they had some tornadoes touch down in their mission...crazy. Oh before I forget....I really thought that picture Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth sent me was cool. It’s amazing how real that is and it truly does feel like that on a mission. It gave me a lot of inspiration. Tell them thank you and I also received their birthday card. I love them and miss them so much. I'm so happy to know they are on a mission serving the Lord. I know a lot of really wonderful senior couples in my mission and I’m sure they are great missionaries.
Mom that is so funny about Elder Southwick...I knew him pretty good. Oh yeah and I’m going to miss President and Sister Porter so much. I heard they are moving to Draper now.... I was sad...oh well it’s still close. I am going to Leadership training in Auckland this Thursday so I will see them again! I figured out about my bike. I called the mission office and it was a miracle. They have I bike they will just let me use until I leave off my mission! and they won’t charge me a cent! Blessings!
Well I got to go. I love you all so much. Tell all the family I love them and miss them!
Elder Kitchen
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Dear Family, How are you all doing this week?? Like always it sounds like a lot of things are happening with the family! Well just a heads up I won’t send as long as e mail as last week. I’m glad I was able to send a long one last week. Well I just wanted to wish everyone a happy birthday! Dad your right we have so many birthdays in May and June! I’m glad you had a good birthday Kaylee....even though you weren’t able to go swimming. I wish I could have sent you something but all I can do is say Happy Birthday and that I love you very much! Mom your birthday is tomorrow!! (It’s today for me here) HAPPY BIRTHDAY mom!! I really hope you have a wonderful day!! I send all my love and best wishes to you tomorrow. I hope and pray you'll receive a job for your birthday present. And the only one I can give you is my love, prayers, and that I’m serving a mission. I wish I could have least give you a big hug haha. But happy birthday!
Well my week was just great! On Thursday we had Lyrics Baptism!! Wow it went really good. A lot of his non member family was there and a big turn out from the ward came. It was during young men’s and so the young men put of the program of the baptism. They all gave talks, prayers, and sang it was really nice. Caleb (Lyrics cousin that just got baptized a couple weeks ago) gave the last talk on the Holy Ghost and it was really powerful. It came from his heart and I can tell he felt the spirit. I was able to baptize Lyric and it was just an incredible baptism. Lyric was like oh my I feel so happy right now and I just feel clean. He is awesome. I love his family too... they are just wonderful people. I pray that someday his family will all be baptized members of the church. We had a nice feed after the baptism. Oh yeah Caleb’s family is doing really good too. We are teaching the whole family now. All 5 of them are listening to the lessons. They almost came to church yesterday but Jared hurt his back so only Caleb came. I know miracles will happen with them. We also had Sheridyn's Baptism this Saturday! Her's was really nice too and I felt the spirit a lot. She asked me to baptize her too! She told her mom....."mom its weird I feel so happy right now, is it normal to feel so happy" I know she felt the spirit. It is just incredible to watch people enter into the waters and just see their whole countenance change. They literally are born again and become followers of Jesus Christ. On Saturday night the ward put of a sisters appreciation dinner. We invited a lot of our investigator sisters to come along. It was really nice and we helped out with the serving. We took their orders and gave them their food. It was like a 5 course meal and it was really nice. It was a great missionary opportunity because there were so many non members there. Yesterday at church Lyric and Sheridyn were both confirmed. Elder Naicker confirmed Lyric and I confirmed Sheridyn. It also was a miracle because Sister Turner (Sheridyn’s mom) said she really wants to come back to church now. She has been less active for 5 years but has now decided she is coming back. Awww I love to see the gospel work in people’s lives.
To answer some of your questions...I didn’t receive the package yet...but please don’t be sad. It’s okay. I’m sure it’s already here in New Zealand but the mission only gives us mail at zone conferences and leadership trainings or when someone goes to Auckland or someone comes here. I will probably get it soon. And about my bike I will let you know more about it but for now I will just use the members bike and then ill figure out something if I get transferred to a bike area....because I don’t want to buy a bike and then go into a car area. The mission can’t really do anything about it because a lot of missionaries’ bikes get stolen. I might just get a second hand one from one of the missionaries going home.
I can’t believe Ryan is graduating this weekend!! WOW Congrats Ryan!! I wish I could be there for ya! That so exciting!! And I’m so sorry again but I really will next week...I promise I will send yours first! .....uhh all the missionaries are finished and waiting for me. Sorry but I got to go soon.
I love you all!
Have a great week and Graduation Ryan!! Take lots of pictures and send them to me! Send more pictures too...I love them!
Elder Kitchen
Well my week was just great! On Thursday we had Lyrics Baptism!! Wow it went really good. A lot of his non member family was there and a big turn out from the ward came. It was during young men’s and so the young men put of the program of the baptism. They all gave talks, prayers, and sang it was really nice. Caleb (Lyrics cousin that just got baptized a couple weeks ago) gave the last talk on the Holy Ghost and it was really powerful. It came from his heart and I can tell he felt the spirit. I was able to baptize Lyric and it was just an incredible baptism. Lyric was like oh my I feel so happy right now and I just feel clean. He is awesome. I love his family too... they are just wonderful people. I pray that someday his family will all be baptized members of the church. We had a nice feed after the baptism. Oh yeah Caleb’s family is doing really good too. We are teaching the whole family now. All 5 of them are listening to the lessons. They almost came to church yesterday but Jared hurt his back so only Caleb came. I know miracles will happen with them. We also had Sheridyn's Baptism this Saturday! Her's was really nice too and I felt the spirit a lot. She asked me to baptize her too! She told her mom....."mom its weird I feel so happy right now, is it normal to feel so happy" I know she felt the spirit. It is just incredible to watch people enter into the waters and just see their whole countenance change. They literally are born again and become followers of Jesus Christ. On Saturday night the ward put of a sisters appreciation dinner. We invited a lot of our investigator sisters to come along. It was really nice and we helped out with the serving. We took their orders and gave them their food. It was like a 5 course meal and it was really nice. It was a great missionary opportunity because there were so many non members there. Yesterday at church Lyric and Sheridyn were both confirmed. Elder Naicker confirmed Lyric and I confirmed Sheridyn. It also was a miracle because Sister Turner (Sheridyn’s mom) said she really wants to come back to church now. She has been less active for 5 years but has now decided she is coming back. Awww I love to see the gospel work in people’s lives.
To answer some of your questions...I didn’t receive the package yet...but please don’t be sad. It’s okay. I’m sure it’s already here in New Zealand but the mission only gives us mail at zone conferences and leadership trainings or when someone goes to Auckland or someone comes here. I will probably get it soon. And about my bike I will let you know more about it but for now I will just use the members bike and then ill figure out something if I get transferred to a bike area....because I don’t want to buy a bike and then go into a car area. The mission can’t really do anything about it because a lot of missionaries’ bikes get stolen. I might just get a second hand one from one of the missionaries going home.
I can’t believe Ryan is graduating this weekend!! WOW Congrats Ryan!! I wish I could be there for ya! That so exciting!! And I’m so sorry again but I really will next week...I promise I will send yours first! .....uhh all the missionaries are finished and waiting for me. Sorry but I got to go soon.
I love you all!
Have a great week and Graduation Ryan!! Take lots of pictures and send them to me! Send more pictures too...I love them!
Elder Kitchen
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